With this Monday marking four weeks since the explosion of Catalangate, the Spanish government has let it be known that it is ready to sacrifice the head of the CNI director, Paz Esteban, if that will return serenity to the relations with the pro-independence parties, especially with the Catalan Republican Left (ERC). It has taken Pedro Sánchez almost a month to make his move and he has opted for a gambit, seeking to sacrifice a dispensable piece and thus protect the queen, Margarita Robles. The Spanish prime minister will attempt to do this, through this offering and a meeting at the Moncloa palace with the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, with whom he had an exchange of impressions for a couple of minutes at the Cercle d'Economia, while awaiting the protocol welcome for the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Sánchez knows that delivering the head of Paz Esteban is far from a solution to the political crisis that has broken open between the Spanish government and its parliamentary allies. It's nothing but a new firewall. It is a long way from resolving Catalangate, which, in terms of official recognition, continues to be of authorship unknown, partly, because the CNI has only recognized 18 cases of espionage with Pegasus - among them, that of Aragonès - of the 65 certified by Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto research centre. What about the other 47? No one is officially responsible, but given that Pegasus software is sold to governments, it is difficult to find anyone who would be more interested than the Spanish to spy on the Catalan independence movement.
However, everyone now knows that the figure of 65 victims of espionage certified by Citizen Lab will grow in the coming days, so a solution as poor as that of Paz Esteban is comparable to offering to bail water out of the Titanic with a bucket. A solution that neither reduces the problem, nor approaches the solution. The heart of the matter remains the same as when the mass espionage with Pegasus became known: there is no minimally credible version that leaves the Spanish prime minister out of the loop, both in terms of responsibility and, surely, of precise knowledge of the espionage undertaken. That is why it is so difficult for the executive to find a solution that allows the people targeted by the espionage to swallow without choking on such insignificant and improbable explanations.
Accepting that the resignation or dismissal of Paz Esteban is the solution to the problem is nothing more than turning one's back on the Spanish government's responsibility for the affair. It is not credible that a decision of this magnitude would not have the support of the minister of defence and the prime minister, who know, as it is their duty to know, the main areas that the CNI is pursuing. And no one with an ounce of grey matter can believe that using Pegasus against the president of Catalonia and asking for judicial authorization for this in the Supreme Court falls within the powers of the director of the CNI. The opacity of the Spanish government from the outset, its resistance to the investigation by Europe, with the complicity of the PP and Vox, makes the congressional commission of inquiry more necessary than ever.
Getting to the bottom of the Catalangate scandal - or trying to - is not just a need of the independence movement alone. It is also the cover letter for denouncing in Europe the mass and indiscriminate espionage by the Spanish government. Closing this chapter with a false ending will achieve nothing more than validating the lack of confidence in those responsible for the espionage with Pegasus spyware.