Spain To Reform Secret Services After Phone-Hacking Scandal – PM

Spain Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez has promised a new law governing ‘classified information’ following the hacking of top politicians’ phones.

Spain will “strengthen judicial control” over its secret services in the wake of a scandal over the hacking of the mobile phones of top politicians, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The scandal broke in April when it emerged the phones of Catalan separatist leaders had been tapped by Spanish intelligence services.

It widened when the government confirmed the phones of Sanchez and the defense and interior ministers were also targeted in an “external attack”.

The affair has sparked a crisis between Sanchez’s minority government and the Catalan pro-independence party ERC.

Sanchez’s fragile coalition relies on the ERC to pass legislation in parliament and remain in power until the next general election due at the end of 2023.

“It is a question of strengthening the guarantees of this control but also of ensuring maximum respect for the individual and political rights of people”, Sanchez told parliament on Thursday as he announced the reform.

Sanchez also said the government will adopt a new law governing “classified information”, which will replace the existing legislation adopted in 1968 during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

“We must urgently adopt regulations to democratic, constitutional principles,” he said.