Sanchez responded in this way before the plenary session of Congress regarding political espionage via the Pegasus system, and justified the measures exposed as urgent, aiming to leave behind a law on classified information that dated from 1968.

He stated that he will protect citizens in this way, with the reinforcement of control and security guarantees with the utmost respect for the individual and social rights of people. “We are going to continue working to redouble security and shield it as much as possible in the future,” he said.

He also underlined the will to align the intelligence directive to the framework of the 2021 national security strategy with the aim of increasing the capabilities of the services and strengthening cooperation with the National Cryptology Center.

In any case, Sanchez was questioned by both the conservative Popular Party (PP), and some of his government coalition partners, such as the spokesman for Esquerra Republicana Catalunya (ERC), Gabriel Rufian.

Rufian criticized the fact that the Executive has spied on 18 people who coincide in his independence ideology without having committed any crime.

The Secretary of State and Director of the National Intelligence Center Paz Esteban was the first whose head rolled due to the scandal of the wiretapping against Sanchez, and her Ministers of Defense, Margarita Robles, and of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, using the Pegasus program.

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