New documents show illegal investigation of Catalan independence camp by Spanish government

A new investigation by news outlets La Vanguardia, ElDiario.es, and El Nacional has revealed illegal use of the police forces to investigate Catalan pro-independence parties. 

The right-wing People's Party Spanish government, led by former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, put members of the Spanish police leadership to this task, with the aim of halting the independence push in Catalonia.

This process was carried out for five years, from the 2012 National Day rally, until 2016, and was done outside the law and using public resources.

The news outlets provided new documents, statements and audios that have pointed out that the then-Spanish interior minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, directed 'Operation Catalonia' and sent sensitive documents to the Spanish government headquarters through escorts. This material was carried in blank envelopes, closed, without subjects, and without senders nor recipients indicated.

According to the investigation, all of this was done with the complicity and help of the main heads of the Spanish police, such as the Deputy Director of Operations, Eugenio Pino, who reported directly to the interior minister.

At the same time, Daniel de Alfonso, who was then director of the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia, was in charge of compiling all kinds of information about the independence camp which he also transferred to the ministry.

In most cases these were investigations motivated by a predetermined political objective but without indications, a legally prohibited practice.

According to the journalistic investigation, former interior minister Fernández Díaz instructed his chief of staff, Francisco Martínez, to liaise with former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to compile this information, and Martínez then ordered that any relevant data was delivered in writing.

This was Villarejo's introduction to the most senior officials in the interior ministry, and this is how his so-called 'informational notes' started, reports that have been detailed in the media in recent years.

Operation Catalonia

The term 'Operation Catalonia' refers to the alleged covert smear campaign against members of the Catalan independence movement devised by Spanish National Police officers and the interior ministry of the conservative Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy.

Spain's Congress voted in favor of launching an investigation into 'Operation Catalonia' in September 2022. At the time of voting, the text stated that the investigation would look into "the alleged irregularities that link high-ranking officials and police commands, as well as their relationship with possible private networks or lobbies, their possible interference in the sovereignty of other countries and this plot's connections with the so-called 'Operation Catalonia'."

Reaction

Catalan Pere Aragonès said that he is not at all surprised that the former Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, knew the details of the "dirty war" against the independence camp.

"The Spanish state, with its sewers, has tried everything and failed. Today, it is even more evident that independence is the only way," Aragonès tweeted on Monday morning.

Raquel Sans, spokesperson for ERC, told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that he has the opportunity to condemn the actions of the PP.

"People who defend Catalan independence have suffered espionage for the simple fact of supporting independence, and even the Catalan president has been targeted. It will be a test for Pedro Sánchez's government," she said.

President of the Catalan pro-independence organization Òmnium Cultural, Javier Antich, wrote on the social media platform X that it was “expected” that Rajoy “had paid for the dirty anti-democratic war against the independence movement with public funds.”  

The spokeswoman for the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), Èlia Tortolero, meanwhile, condemned that the conservative government under Rajoy had “instrumentalized” the police to “go after political opponents” during ‘Operation Catalonia,’ and stressed that a committee of inquiry commission into the case was “necessary.”