She explained that she and a judge of Spain's National Court were the only women in the trip and during a dinner, they saw their fellow male colleagues.

"They quickly stood up when they saw us and they got stressed due to the fact that we had seen them."

Minister called "faggot" to colleague

In another excerpt of the chat published on Tuesday, the current minister Delgado called "faggot" the then Spanish judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska, now her colleague in the Spanish cabinet as home affairs head.

Due to the leaks, the Spanish minister Delgado is under pressure because she said she had never met Villarejo at first –but some days later admitted having met him three times.

Minister asked to step down

A number of opposition parties in the Spanish Congress have asked her to step down, including the unionist People's Party and Ciutadans, left-wing Podemos and pro-independence ERC.

"If you hold a meeting with Villarejo, you are one more colleague of him, and Villarejo has been responsible for a dirty war in the past 40 years against a lot of things and he has been in the worst messes of the Spanish democracy," said ERC MP in Madrid Gabriel Rufián.

Villarejo is thought to have investigated pro-independence leaders in order to discredit their movement.