The reason cyber spies choose Barcelona isn't much different from the reason that draws more than twelve million tourists to the Catalan capital each year, according to City Hall data. "Need a vitamin D boost without getting sunburned? In January, Barcelona is usually sunny and pleasant!" And what about the food: "Gained a few pounds after Christmas? It's not time to exercise yet." Although it might seem like it, these aren't phrases from a travel agency or the city's tourist information office, but rather the promotional tactics used by the organizers of a secret cyber spy meeting. The meeting is being held this Wednesday in the Eixample district, and only the attendees know the location. Everything is very clandestine because the content of the meetings will be particularly sensitive.

The Congressional commission of inquiry into the state's sewage system is on hold. At least as far as appearances are concerned. The last ones were in May, shortly before the Leire Díez and Santos Cerdán cases broke out, and although several were agreed upon but still pending, no one has testified on the committee for five months. Despite the reduction in activity, this Tuesday it approved a new extension to continue working beyond October 24, when its activity was due to end. Until now, the committee has mostly testified politicians and key figures from the Mariano Rajoy administration, but it remains pending approval to appear for profiles with responsibilities from 2018 onwards, when Pedro Sánchez was in power and when the majority of the Pegasus espionage cases occurred.

The Ministry of Defense is prepared to assume the decree for the total arms embargo on Israel that was published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and comes into force this Thursday, or at least that's what Spanish government sources indicate, who assure that in July the ministry headed by Margarita Robles achieved "zero dependence" on Israeli technology. "The Ministry of Defense does not use Israeli technology today," indicate sources from Pedro Sánchez's executive.

A Barcelona judge has decided to investigate for the first time two former directors of the Civil Guard, Félix Vicente Azón and María Gámez, for spying on the independence movement using Pegasus. Judge Míriam de Rosa Palacio thus admitted a complaint filed by five of those targeted by this espionage, including businessman and former Junts senator Joan Matamala. The judge considers that the reported acts could constitute crimes of discovery and disclosure of computer secrets and illegal access to computer systems.

On December 12, 2024, after a intense campaign supported by European civil society, we managed to block the draft European regulation on the automated monitoring of intimate conversations of European citizens, known as Chat Control. A coalition of governments was achieved that prevented a qualified majority from being achieved. Spain was not one of them, since from the beginning it stood out with one of the most extreme positions in favor. A document that was leaked in 2023 brought to light the following statements from the Ministry of the Interior: "Ideally, in our view, it would be desirable to legislatively prevent EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption. […] Automatic content detection in interpersonal communications is key."

The Barcelona Court has ordered the investigation into the Pegasus case to be extended and three executives of NSO Group, the Israeli company that owns the spy software, and its subsidiaries in Luxembourg to be charged. This is the first time that executives of the company will have to answer to justice, according to the Irídia entity. It was precisely this human rights centre that He named the head of NSO Group by extending the complaint for espionage to one of the key lawyers in the judicialisation of the Process, Andreu Van den Eynde, who represents several ERC defendants.

With the outbreak of Catalangate, the indignation of the Generalitat led it to announce relations with the Spanish government would remain frozen until it had given explanations and held those responsible to account over mass surveillance of the independence movement. In spite of the fact that relations were never fully interrupted, relations will resume this Wednesday in Madrid with a meeting between the Catalan Presidency minister, Laura Vilagrà, and Spanish Presidency minister, Félix Bolaños. The Generalitat will attend the meeting with a single point on the agenda: "to address the deadlock" in relations between the two governments following Catalangate. This deadlock jeopardises the great strategy of Catalan president Pere Aragonès this term, which is to seek dialogue with the State to try to resolve the political conflict.

The European Commission, through vice president Vera Jourová, has admitted it is "concerned" about the ease with which Pegasus can be used and the violation of privacy this tool implies. Jourová, also responsible for Values nad Transparency, was appearing in the Spanish Parliament's Justice committee, where she also showed confidence in the explanations that Spain has given on Catalangate. "We have to see if this tool has been used in accordance with the law of the country. In the case of Spain, whether it was used with court authorisation. Yesterday [Monday] I was told by the Ombudsman's office that it was," she said, after being asked by JxCat MP Josep Pagès. However, she has hinted that "perhaps the analysis of this situation has not concluded".

Spanish High Court judge José Luis Calama has agreed to lift reporting restrictions on the case of alleged phone hacking using Pegasus spyware against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Minister of Defence Margarita Robles. In addition, the magistrate summoned Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños as a witness on July 5 at 9 am. The judge wants to take a statement from Bolaños as the head of the Security Department of La Moncloa. Calama opened this investigation following a complaint from the State Attorney's Office.

Amnesty International (AI) is one of the most active organisations in the fight against espionage through programmes such as Pegasus, which, it believes, violates human rights. In fact, the software used internationally to detect whether a cell phone is infected with this virus developed by Israeli company NSO came precisely from AI's research center. Now it has criticised the Spanish government as a result of Catalangate. In addition, after Spanish president Pedro Sánchez's appearance this Thursday in Parliament, AI published a ten-point plan to deal with the scandal.

Spanish president Pedro Sánchez announced today in Parliament that he will promote a change in the law that regulates the judicial control of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), which dates back to 2002, to "ensure maximum respect for individual rights". Sánchez has made this announcement during his appearance in Parliament to give explanations over the Pegasus case, as requested by all other parties. Sánchez has used the opportunity both to criticise the PP and to defend his commitment to dialogue with Catalonia.

Paz Esteban has been relieved of her duties as head of the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) in an attempt to placate ERC and put an end to the Catalangate scandal, Minister of Defence Margarita Robles told the press today. However, the minister argued that this was not a dismissal but a "substitution" and that the underlying reason is in no case spying on Catalan pro-independence leaders but cabinet members¡s phones becoming infected with Israeli spyware Pegasus. In addition, the executive has also confirmed that Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska's phone was infected, and that an attempt was made to infect a phone belonging to Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas, who had been ambassador in Morocco.

The Spanish government is willing to declassify documents linked to the Pegasus case, but not to make them freely accessible to the public. Unidas Podemos and pro-independence parties have requested the publication of court authorisations that CNI director Paz Esteban showed the official secrets committee. However, Socialist spokesperson Felipe Sicilia has made clear that if any document is declassified it will only be available through the "appropriate channels": behind closed doors in the parliamentary committee. Declassification, moreover, will only occur if requested by the Ombudsman, who is investigating the events, or a judge. Documents will not be made public because of requests by Catalan president Pere Aragonès.

It seems incredible, but Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has not yet said a single word in public of his own accord about Catalangate spying scandal, uncovered by The New Yorker on April 18, in which Catalan pro-independence leaders' phones were infected with Pegasus. He only did so in the Spanish Parliament answering a question from Gabriel Rufián, which is totally insufficient. He has not even referred to the fact his own mobile phone was infected with Pegasus a year ago. From day one, Sánchez's strategy has been to minimise this scandal, not to expose himself, and to try to weather the storm without having to make any compromising decisions. This strategy, however, is no longer working.

"It is urgent we talk. This is very serious". This is what Catalan president Pere Aragonès told Spanish president Pedro Sánchez during the three-minute conversation they had at the doors of the W Hotel, in Barcelona, while they were waiting for the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who this Friday will receive an award at the Cercle d'Economia conference. The initial greeting was cold, but later Sánchez sought out Aragonès and they were seen talking and looking serious at a time when relations between the PSOE and ERC have hit rock bottom, in the wake of Catalangate spying scandal, of which the Catalan president was one of the victims.

The current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, was spied on with court authorisation by the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI), sources in the official secrets committee have told Agència Catalana de Notícies (ACN). Aragonès is part of a group of 18 Catalan independence leaders, among whom there are also people close to former president Carles Puigdemont, whose telephone communications were intercepted with the authorisation of Supreme Court judge attached to the CNI Pablo Lucas. In fact, after the committee session, pro-independence parties and also Unidas Podemos asked that all this information be declassified and made public and have insisted that someone, pointing to the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, should resign over this scandal.

For over a year now, Barcelona's Court no. 32 has been investigating alleged spying on former Catalan speaker – now a Catalan minister – Roger Torrent and ERC spokesman in Barcelona City Council Ernest Maragall using Pegasus spyware. But it is only now that the judge has ordered both politicians to hand in their mobile phones, so they may be analysed. This is one of the first proceedings ordered by the court, which until now had only requested information about Pegasus's developer, Israeli company NSO, through letters rogatory to different countries that are still awaiting a response.

In July 2021, a consortium of 17 media outlets published a list of over 50,000 phone numbers in over 45 countries that had been potentially flagged for Pegasus surveillance by, they noted, authoritarian regimes. The Guardian was one of these media, and this Wednesday it has published that, in the case of Spain, the selected mobiles were over 200, by a client, it adds, which could be Morocco.

The Spanish government has been left alone over the Pegasus case. This Tuesday opposition parties joined forces to demand Spanish president Pedro Sánchez's appearance in Parliament. They consider the explanations given so far are insufficient and demand the leader of the executive face parliamentary scrutiny over spying on pro-independence leaders, but also on Sánchez himself and the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles. Pro-independence groups, together with the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, have voted in favour of this appearance at the meeting of Board of Party Spokespersons. Only the Socialists and Unidas Podemos opposed it, since they consider that before the Spanish president appears in the Spanish parliament "previous steps" should be taken first.

No political or social leader of the Catalan or Basque independence movements nor of Podemos can be surprised to find out they were spied on. Yet The New Yorker presenting evidence that sophisticated Israeli computerised espionage material that only states can access has been installed on more than 60 mobiles phones takes it to another level. It is not the same to suspect that your conversations are being listened to as to have hard evidence, with the government ending up admitting the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) is probably behind a clearly illegal espionage.