Europe’s spyware scandal has just hit the continent’s top ranks. The Spanish government said Monday that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had breached with Pegasus software, an Israeli digital piracy tool used to monitor telephone communications. Sánchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles fell victim to malware in May and June 2021, in what Madrid called an “illegal and external” intrusion into government communications. It is a stark reminder that even the phones of Europe’s most powerful leaders are not safe from digital espionage. Sánchez is the first confirmed European and NATO leader to fall victim to spyware. But evidence of political espionage using spyware has been on the rise in Europe for months. Investigators revealed last month that dozens of politicians in Catalonia were victims of digital espionage. Senior European Union officials and UK government staff may also have been targeted by Pegasus spyware, and the use of Pegasus in Poland and Hungary has also been documented. The latest upheaval in the Pegasus saga is increasing pressure on lawmakers to curb the use of spyware, which is used by government agencies around the world to exploit phones and monitor target data and communications. “Our democracy and the security of the European Union are under threat. It requires a strong response from the European authorities,” said Saskia Bricmont, a member of the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry into the use of Pegasus in Europe. She and other lawmakers are calling for “a strict ban on illegal spyware.” However, the European Parliament will have a long way to go before convincing national governments of the need to crack down on spyware.
European governments have been skeptical about the details of spyware – in part because the use of digital piracy tools such as Pegasus has served security authorities around the world to fight crime and deter national security threats. Spanish Prime Minister Felix Bolanios said on Monday that the phone calls made by Sanchez and Robles were “illegal and external … They are foreign to government agencies and have no judicial authorization from any official agency”. The Spanish government’s decision to declassify the information on its leader’s phone is also a change from the way it responded to Pegasus news on the Catalan leaders’ phones. Last month, Madrid denied illegally spying on dozens of Catalan independence leaders – but gave few or no details about the use of Pegasus by its own CNI intelligence service. The Catalan government has insisted that the Spanish government is behind the hack, demanding an investigation. On Monday, Catalonia’s regional president Pere Aragon accused Madrid of double standards and measures. “When there is mass espionage against Catalan institutions and independence, we have silence and excuses. Today, everything is in a hurry,” he wrote on Twitter. “I know what it’s like to feel like a spy … But the double standards and weights are obvious,” he added.

Red lines

The confirmed hacking of a prime minister’s phone could be the moment that activists and experts have been waiting for. “There is an endemic problem with major political events that do not fully understand the dangers of this type of political hacking,” said John Scott-Railton, a Pegasus expert at the Canadian research institute Citizen Lab, in an interview last month. The Pegasus European Parliament inquiry will meet in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Lawmakers tried to move fast, hoping to use the avalanche of the reported hacks as a way to reach a consensus to stop spyware in Europe. However, the European Commission has so far put aside proposals that it should act, insisting that it is up to the national capitals to investigate any espionage cases. Top Brussels officials have even betrayed a spy on digital espionage, with digital bloc Tsar Margrethe Vestager last month appearing to downplay the Pegasus threat and European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynd possible hack of his device. This article is part of POLITICO Pro The single solution for policy professionals who combine the depth of POLITICO journalism with the power of technology Exclusively, breaking scoops and ideas Custom policy information platform A high level public affairs network