The Spanish government's response to judge José Luis Calama of the National Audience, informing him that it will not declassify documents related to the Pegasus affair, is a way of trying to bring down the curtain on a hugely sensitive case. The fact that this response pertains to the least substantive part of all the illegal intervention carried out with the Israeli company's software, the part relating to the mobile phones of members of the Spanish executive - prime minister Pedro Sánchez, defence minister Margarita Robles and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska - and that it is unknown whether, behind it, stands the Moroccan secret service or even some branch of the Spanish secret service is, in essence, irrelevant. The important thing, for the future, is the response to the judge: there are no secrets to be revealed.
It is clear that the Spanish government is trying to set up a corpus which is legislative (the planned new official secrets law), political (no one has been investigated) and institutional ("we respect the current laws") with the main aim of surviving the legislature and, with that, of keeping its currently pending bills moving forward, starting with the Spanish government budget. Pedro Sánchez's executive has not, to begin with, given an explanation as to why the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) hacked the mobile phone of the president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, in the middle of political negotiations to facilitate the formation of a new Spanish government by the Socialist candidate. It goes without saying that, with regard to the rest of those illegally spied on, in whose cases the Spanish government has denied any involvement, there is no information at all.
It is still astounding - except for those who were already confirmed cynics - how a page has been turned so quickly on a serious issue that, among many other things, affects trust between governments and political parties. It is clear that the political figure sacrificed, the director of the CNI, is small fry compared to the demand for the resignation of the defence minister, made by the Catalan president. How naive it is to think that public opinion in Catalonia, after the actions seen against the independence movement by the Spanish government, will accept that it is enough to turn over a new leaf and promise that it won't happen again.
In fact, faced with such an unbelievable explanation, one tends to look elsewhere for a more acceptable justification. But the most important thing in the Spanish executive's response is the message that we should forget trying to find out what has happened for a good long time. The judge will surely have enough with the explanations given and the matter will not, it seems, have a very long judicial life. The official secrets law being prepared by the Spanish government will do the rest, as it sets a maximum of 60 years to declassify material which is compromising for the state. That's a long way into the future and it is clear that in 2082 the matter is unlikely to shake up current affairs.
The indignation that Unidas Podemos may project will not take it very far, because it is already known that, in these matters, the parliamentary majority is wide enough if necessary: the PSOE, the PP, Vox and Citizens. A large number of MPs to ensure that the truth will not out. Or that it will do, but so late that only historians will take an interest.