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.

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.

The ombudsman has reached the same conclusions as the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) on Catalangate: the secret services obtained court authorisation to use Pegasus against 18 people linked to the independence movement. In the report made public on Tuesday, Angel Gabilondo stresses that the CNI's "main mission" to provide the Spanish government with "information and intelligence necessary to prevent and avoid any risk or threat that affects the independence and integrity of Spain, national interests and the stability of the rule of law and its institutions". Does the ombudsman back, therefore, the CNI's judgement that then Catalan vice-president Pere Aragonès, with whom the PSOE was negotiating the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, posed a risk? Gabilondo makes it clear that he cannot enter into a "critical analysis of the reasoning nor can he question the decisions taken by a court".

In the last years relations between ERC and En Comú have been characterised by their ups and downs, although, taking stock, there have been outstanding moments of understanding. The two most important were the deals for the 2020 and 2022 budgets. Now relations have once again turned sour as a result of political espionage, especially after this weekend La Vanguardia published that the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had spied on negotiations for the Barcelona mayoralty. The mayor and En Comú leader Ada Colau demanded a "sincere rectification" from Maragall for having accused her of "complicity" with the CNI. Maragall denies having done so, but has assured the mayor was an "indirect beneficiary" of the espionage.

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.

Over sixty people were spied on, around twenty after the secret services were given authorisation by a judge. Among these is the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès. Catalangate scandal is shaking the Spanish government's stability, which could be forced to call early elections. ERC and the rest of the pro-independence movement is demanding explanations but, for the moment, they have not been given any. All documents related to espionage are official secrets and, if the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) is careful enough to show only the essential part to MPs on the parliamentary official secrets committee –with a commitment of confidentiality– nobody else will know. The Generalitat has asked the Spanish Government to declassify these documents as an exercise in transparency that has few precedents in Spain. But who has the power to decide when secrets are made public?

The annual meeting of the Cercle d'Economia is an economic forum which always becomes an indicator of the political atmosphere. If last year's edition had pardons for political prisoners at its centre, this year's inaugural conference has been dominated by political espionage. Catalan president Pere Aragonès warned the Catalan business community that Catalangate "is blowing up" the process of dialogue between the Generalitat and the State. Specifically, what is failing, according to him, is the way Spanish president Pedro Sánchez is handling the situation. "If he believes in dialogue, he must hold those responsible to account. It is absolutely necessary," he said

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.

The information revealed this Monday at a press conference by government Spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez and Presidency minister Félix Bolaños, denouncing the use of Pegasus to hack into Pedro Sánchez's and Margarita Robles's phones, asks many more questions than it answers. Let's take a look.

The scandal over the spying on some sixty Catalan pro-independence leaders has taken an unexpected turn this Monday with the denunciation by the Spanish government itself that the telephones of president Pedro Sánchez and Defence Minister Margarita Robles were also infected with the Pegasus programme. Specifically, experts from the National Cryptologic Centre, a branch of the CNI, have detected two extractions of information in May and June 2021 in the case of Sánchez, and only in June in the case of the minister.

Two weeks after the outbreak of Catalangate, the independence movement does not quite believe that Spanish President Pedro Sanchez and Defence Minister Margarita Robles may have also been victims of espionage. "It is clear that it could be a smokescreen," said this Monday the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras. A smokescreen, in his opinion, to cover up Catalangate and for the Spanish government to continue to not give explanations about the origin of espionage to the independence movement. This time there have been no nuances between sovereigntist parties: JxCat and the CUP have also questioned the credibility of the Spanish government's denunciation.

The question is not whether Spain spies. Obviously spying takes place. As in all surrounding European countries. As so often in Spain, the real question is the impunity with which people act against each other. That is to say, what democratic cost is paid when the law is transgressed and violated and what democratic control is exercised over power. It is clear that the overreach of the secret services and deep state activity will be as intense as the consequences of violating citizens' rights such as the secrecy of communications or the defence and expression of dissident ideas will be superficial.

The week was marked by the political effects of Catalangate, such as ERC's refusal to support the Spanish government's decree on the consequences of the war in Ukraine. But there is another aspect that will also gain protagonism in the medium term: the court battle. This Friday, Òmnium has brought together four lawyers, some of whom were victim of surveillance themselves, at the University of Barcelona, in order to discuss the legal strategy for the lawsuits. Although they have not revealed all the details, they indicated who they would be directed against: Israeli spyware developer NSO; the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI); the Guardia Civil; and the Spanish National Police. With this lawsuit they intend to clarify who made an "illegal" use of Pegasus, since they have insisted that no judge could have authorised spying on over sixty people, including lawyers, and if we had it would be a perversion of the course of justice.

The contacts between Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) in the aftermath of Catalangate scandal have not been successful and the Republicans have decided to punish the Spanish government and will vote against the measures to counter the economic effects of the war in Ukraine. Tension has been rising in the last few days, but it spiked yesterday following minister of Defence Margarita Robles's words justifying spying on pro-independence supporters. JxCat and CUP will also vote against the decree.

If anything marked this Wednesday's parliamentary control session, both in Barcelona and Madrid, it has been the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus to hack into pro-independence leaders' phones. Catalangate, as it is known, has monopolised the discussion in the Catalan parliament, where Catalan president Pere Aragonès demanded Spanish Minister of Defence Margarita Robles's resignation. This came shortly after Robles tried to justify the espionage operation in the Spanish parliament. "The statements make her politically unfit to continue in office. She has said that just because we are pro-independence there is a free hand for them to spy on us. The minister should resign," he said in response to a question from his own parliamentary group, calling the minister's position "insulting" and "extremely serious".

"Vostè continues with the mantra of 60 and I don't know how many people spied on and investigated. It is very easy to say this without any evidentiary material, but, look, since you insist, I ask you: what does a good state have to do? What does a government have to do when someone violates the Constitution? When someone declares independence, when someone cuts the public roads and leads public disorder? When someone has relations with politicians of a country that is invading Ukraine? You have not said anything about this, you have not said anything and you are not saying anything. And when organizations such as the SEPE are plundered and workers are prevented from being paid? When there has also been looting of ministers' telephones? I have not heard him say anything. I have not read anything.

The Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) has admitted that it used Israeli espionage program Pegasus to spy on leaders of the Catalan pro-independence environment, but has stressed that it always did so on an individual basis and with court authorisation, as published on Tuesday by El País. Sources in the Spanish intelligence service did not reveal to the newspaper either who they spied on nor when, but they distrusted the investigation by Citizen Lab that uncovered the alleged spying on at least 65 pro-independence supporters using Pegasus, arguing that it was tainted by Catalan researcher Elies Campo's participation, as he is close to the pro-independence movement. They claim, however, that many of those listed in the Citizen Lab report were never spied on by the CNI.