This week the commissions in Congress will be launched that will analyze the 17-A, Pegasus and the Catalonia operation, three matters related to Catalonia and which the PSOE undertook to promote together with Junts and ERC to form the Congress Bureau . The aim is for the three commissions to be set up this Wednesday and to start working on the investigations into Operation Catalonia which was carried out by the Ministry of the Interior of the first Executive of Mariano Rajoy, the spying on the pro-independence parties with Pegasus and the jihadist attacks that occurred in August 2017 in Barcelona and Cambrils.
Majority of the investiture pact parties in the three commissions
The intention is that the parties that supported the investiture of Pedro Sánchez have control of all the months of these new commissions and that the socialists preside over those on Operation Catalunya and Pegasus and Sumar will take over that of the attacks . Despite the fact that the three issues affect Catalonia, the negotiations only envisage, at most, that a Catalan be president, since the PSOE has chosen María Luz Martínez Seijo and Artemi Rallo to head the commissions of Operation Catalonia and Pegasus and Sumar he still has to decide if it will be the former councilor of Barcelona, Eloi Badia, or Txema Guijarro, the president of the commission on the attacks.
Rajoy may have to answer to Congress
Once the three commissions have been established, they will have to set the date of the first meeting in which their work plans will be established and the possible attendees could be discussed. The one that could arouse the most interest will be the reference to operation Catalonia, since in previous legislatures the pro-independence groups already tried to summon Mariano Rajoy to appear, but the PSOE refused. Everything suggests that this time the situation could be different, since last January the PSOE was willing to question the former Spanish president in this new commission.
Likewise, it should be remembered that in the pact signed by PSOE and Junts to obtain the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, it was already agreed to take advantage of these three commissions to advance the amnesty. At the same time, those of Carles Puigdemont want what Congress ends up clarifying to serve to demonstrate the judicial war against independence and review other causes that also affect the process. During her intervention before the Plenary when the commissions were approved, the spokeswoman for Junts, Miriam Nogueras, reiterated that the purpose of operation Catalonia was to “neutralize independence” and affirmed that the “pillars” of this movement continues to be subject to “the sewers of the State”.
Effects on the CNI and the PSOE with Pegasus and the attacks
The other two approved commissions could end up splashing the PSOE and the CNI. The one relating to the attacks, approved at the request of Junts and PNB, will investigate the hypothesis already raised by former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo about the possible responsibility of the CNI in the attacks, since one of those involved, the imam of Ripoll, Abdelbaki is Satty, he had been a confidant.
For their part, it was ERC, Bildu and the BNG who promoted the commission that will be in charge of collecting data on the espionage of different Catalan politicians through Pegasus. When he debated the creation in Congress, the ERC spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, already recalled that this investigation also affects the PSOE because the spying on pro-independence parties took place under his mandate and because President Sánchez and several others were also spied on ministers “We want to know who paid for the Pegasus program, and this is also where the PSOE comes in, let them look into it because it may also be happening today,” concluded Rufián.
