Spain to reform secret services after spying scandal, PM promises
- Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will adopt new law governing ‘classified information’ to replace existing legislation adopted in 1968 during Franco’s dictatorship
- Phones of Catalan separatist leaders, as well as those of PM and ministers, had been tapped by Spanish intelligence services, affecting fragile coalition
Spain will “strengthen judicial control” over its secret services in the wake of a scandal over the hacking of the mobile phones of top politicians, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Thursday.
The scandal broke in April when it emerged the phones of Catalan separatist leaders had been tapped by Spanish intelligence services. It widened when the government confirmed the phones of Sanchez and the defence and interior ministers were also targeted in an “external attack”.
The affair has sparked a crisis between Sanchez’s minority government and Catalan separatist party ERC. Sanchez’s fragile coalition relies on the ERC to pass legislation in parliament and remain in power until the next general election due at the end of 2023.
“It is a question of strengthening the guarantees of this control but also of ensuring maximum respect for the individual and political rights of people”, Sanchez told parliament as he announced the reform.
Sanchez also said the government will adopt a new law governing “classified information”, which will replace the existing legislation adopted in 1968 during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
