An investigation is underway in Spain, which has shown that Spain's former center-right government - the People's Party (EPP) - in cooperation with the police and some media - carried out an illegal "dirty mission" to discredit the left-wing opposition party Podemos and the Catalan independence movement.
Euractiv writes about it.
The investigation is part of the so-called "kitchen case" conducted by Spanish anti-corruption authorities. The case investigates the involvement of high-ranking police officers in an operation led by a former EPP interior minister to extract sensitive information from former EPP treasurer Luis Barcenas, exposing high-ranking party officials in corrupt practices.
This particular case concerns the involvement of police officers, coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior, with the aim of undermining Podemos and weakening the Catalan independence movement.
Spanish publication El País published a series of text messages exchanged between 2015 and 2019 between Francisco Martínez, former Secretary of State for Security at the Ministry of the Interior (EPP), and Eugenio Pino, former director of operations for the National Police.
"Dirty Mission" aimed to link Podemos to illegal financing from Iran and Venezuela in cooperation between the then government, the police and the media.
Shortly after Podemos won 69 parliamentary seats in the 2015 general election, the Ministry of the Interior began circulating a report alleging that former Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias received funding from the Iranian government.
The document, published in many Spanish media, was not accepted by the judiciary.
The leaked messages show that soon after, Martínez and Pino exchanged messages about new sources from Venezuela with information against Podemos.
Some of this information leaked to the Spanish media, causing a stormy reaction from Pablo Iglesias, who condemned the "persecution".
After Iglesias publicly protested, Pino sent a message to Martinez saying they were investigating the undeclared funds, "that's what's criminal and that's what's being investigated."
The reports also refer to the government's attempt to discredit the Catalan independence movement.
During searches in 2015 of the homes and businesses of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont's family by the Spanish judiciary, Martinez urged Pino, who was involved in the raids, "to be aware of what is happening today to make a lot of noise."
The leader of the Catalan independents and member of the European Parliament, Clara Ponsati, said that it was "a scandal that would have immediate political and judicial consequences in any democratic country."
"This will not happen in Spain because there is a system that includes all branches of political and coercive power, the government, parliament and the judiciary, together with the police and the press, which cooperate to destroy the lives and political ideas of those they consider to be their structural enemies. ", she said.
Podemos believes that the EU should solve this problem as it was done with Poland and Hungary, where there were attempts to undermine the country from within, using the judiciary.
According to Podemos, pan-European actions should include a European anti-corruption plan for the EU and its member states. The left-wing party also proposes creating a police force specialized in fighting corruption and financial crimes, and strengthening the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) by turning it into an agency.