The American technology magazine Wired has just revealed that Spain is advocating a ban on end-to-end encryption of messages, a technique used by platforms such as WhatsApp and Signal. It is a position that, according to the magazine, is the most extreme view in the range of opinions among the different European states, with a harshness and forcefulness that surpasses even countries like Poland and Hungary. Obviously, this will not be an election campaign issue in Spain, since the People's Party and the right-wing groups are scarcely in a position to teach any lessons about this and the Socialists are the most interested of all in that there is as little talk as possible about these issues which, in one way or another another, could end up arousing great concern for what is portrayed as a violation of privacy and the loss of fundamental rights. Thus, one must not expect the issue to make great media impact in Spain.
Clearly, the Sánchez government's campaign agenda has been meticulously prepared so that they make an announcement every day. Tuesday was the day of the approval of the parity law that will oblige company boards, the government of Spain, electoral candidacies, as well as judicial bodies such as the Constitutional Court, the Council of State, the Court of Accounts, the Fiscal Council and the General Council of the Judiciary, to have a minimum representation of 40% of either sex. Tomorrow there will be another issue and so on until the election date. The adaptation period for the law will last until 2028, but this is something that does not make it to the headlines, a similar case to that of the questions of when and how they will apply the promises being made on creating larger public housing stock, aid to mortgage holders, the scheme for two-euro movie tickets for over-65s, the reinforcement of primary health care, the creation of a Spanish Interrail so that young people can become more familiar with this country and a few others: all of this and more, since there is no day without a rabbit being pulled from the top hat.
Election campaigns are like this: governments dig into their closets to take out commitments they formulated at some point which they present as authentic renovation plan and put their faith in it. Each government has its own strategy for getting votes and trying to confuse the public. The legion of employees who these last few weeks have been working hard and long to finish municipal road works at the centre of Barcelona, regardless of the time or day, especially in Carrer Consell de Cent, is really striking. The Colau team must think that the important thing is to arrive on time, whatever the cost. In fact, there are neighbourhoods which over this past month have experienced unusual activity in their streets with parties, concerts and all kinds of fun activities that, coincidentally, only occur during the election period.
But back to what's behind the wish to ban end-to-end encrypted message encryption. We have seen this in the past with the use of Pegasus to spy on citizens simply because of their political ideology. A criminal attitude, by the way, over which the Spanish government's explanations have been so vague and partial that they have mainly served to confirm that the Socialists are hiding what they actually did. Now, this case of encryption is another step in the same direction, which ends up stripping citizens of their rights and never being able to know what was done and how the information obtained was used. If until now there has been preventive espionage, carried out in incipient and illegal ways, now, the intention is that it will have legal means to carry it through at a large scale.
This issue, due to its importance, requires the Pedro Sánchez government to give an explanation after the electoral campaign, because the path it has opened is enormously dangerous. If they don't do so, we'll see where it leads.