The Spanish government takes the intervention of hackers from Russia and Venezuela in the institutional crisis of Catalonia and will address this issue in the Council of Foreign Affairs of the European Union to be held next Monday. This was announced on Friday by the government spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, and the defense minister, María Dolores de Cospedal.
"This is a serious issue, where democracy has to face the challenges of new technologies," summarized Méndez de Vigo after the meeting of the Council of Ministers. "It is an issue that will be on the agenda of the next foreign affairs council, next Monday in Brussels, where the Foreign Minister [Alfonso Dastis] will intervene in the matter," he announced.
"We believe that Europe has to take this issue very seriously, we have seen in recent times a foundation of the EU as a community of law, as a constitutional order It is not possible that strange, alien forces, that we do not know who they are, want to alter that constitutional order," he argued. "As technology has no borders, we believe that the scope in which it must be resolved is the scope of the EU."
"What the Government has contrasted is that many messages and interventions that have occurred through social networks come from Russian territory," said the head of Defense. "And I use the exact expression of Russian territory," he stressed. "That does not necessarily mean that we have verified that it is the Russian Government," he has continued. "Therefore, we must act with the utmost prudence, we must be very clear about the origins, they are part of the Russian territory, part of others, also foreign to the EU, it is at the moment of determining that." Government sources later specified that one of those territories outside the EU is Venezuela.
Comment: Of course they don't have any proof. They don't want to look into the mirror to discern why the people of Catalonia desire independence. Why not look into their own back yard: The "Soros network" & the myth of European Democracy
Hackers from Russia and Venezuela are dedicated to distorting or misrepresenting information about Catalonia and Spain. For example, they reported that independence from the Balearic Islands is advocated. They also reported that Spanish schools are not taught in Catalan schools. The multiplication of news about this Autonomous Community has grown exponentially since the beginning of the institutional crisis and comes from means linked to Russian owners or to specific people who have broken into the information about Catalonia with messages always favorable to the independentistas or directly false. According to Esteban González Pons, spokesman of the PP in the Europarlamento, these interferences aim to destabilize the European Union. "And at this moment, the focus to fulfill that objective has been put in Catalonia", specifies the vice-president of the European popular group.
Although the Government and the main parties share the certainty that there has been an interference by Russia in the institutional crisis that exists in Catalonia, the Executive has preferred to maintain a low profile so far. Discretion has marked the script of La Moncloa, although Gonzalez Pons sent his European colleagues a letter in which he announced that the Government of Mariano Rajoy had evidence on the activity of Russian hackers in Spain.
So far, the exception has been Alfonso Dastis, the foreign minister, who on Friday said that "there are quite contrasted reports" that show that a group of Russian hackers is acting to "destabilize" the European Union.
"It seems that there are quite contrasted reports that prove that Russian networks or hackers are behind something that is not exclusively against Spain, but a way to destabilize the EU," he said during the interview at the Cope. The minister has affirmed that this interest has had Russia "for a long time", since, as it has emphasized, that country does not feel "comfortable" with the "unity" of the European project.
Comment: Russia isn't concerned about the EU and has no reasons to want the EU to break up. Russia just wants fair trade and respect.
In addition, the foreign ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday discussed the need to increase the resources of that European unity against Russian influence. In the same vein, deputies and experts from more than 20 countries have signed a declaration urging the High Representative for European Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, to act more forcefully in cases such as Catalan.
Article 155
In addition to the ordinary Council of Ministers, in which it has been approved to adapt the Law on organic protection of personal data protection to European regulations, the Government has held an extraordinary one to adopt decisions regarding the organization of regional elections. They will celebrate December 21 in Catalonia under Article 155 of the Constitution.
Thus, the Executive has approved the instruction manual for the members of the polling stations of those elections and has agreed on the appointment of Rosa Anna Castillo i Picas as General Director of Modernization of the Administration of Justice of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Castillo had resigned from this position, for which she had been appointed by the Govern of Carles Puigdemont, and now she returns to her position. It thus becomes the first position of the Generalitat to which the Executive recovers after the intervention.
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