Catalan president and Spanish PM avoid discussing Catalangate at Barcelona event
Aragonès and Sánchez attend annual Cercle d’Economia talks in Catalan capital
The Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, and the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, greeted one another at the annual Cercle d’Economia event with the country’s business and political elite in Barcelona on Friday in the midst of the Catalangate espionage scandal.
Right before their encounter, which comes a day after the Spanish intelligence agency (CNI), admitted to spying on 18 pro-independence figures - including Aragonès himself as well as close associates of former president Carles Puigdemont - the current Catalan cabinet chief said he did not intend to discuss the issue with Sánchez at the Cercle d'Economia.
He did, however, tell Sánchez while greeting him that they needed "to speak urgently."
"This is very serious," Aragonès said.
This is the first time Sánchez and Aragonès were seen together since news of the Catalangate espionage case broke on April 18. The New Yorker magazine and the University of Toronto-based research group Citizen Lab reported that over 60 people with ties to the Catalan pro-independence movement were targeted with Israeli NSO Group spyware, Pegasus, as well as Candiru.
CNI admits to spying on 18 people
On Thursday, the head of the Spanish intelligence agency, Paz Esteban, admitted to having spied on 18 of more than 60 people named in The New Yorker and Citizen Lab reports with approval from Spain's Supreme Court judge Pablo Lucas.
Hours after the committee meeting's findings were made public, the Catalan president called for the information discussed to be declassified as well as for there to be resignations over it.