The People's Party warns: the government's contract with Huawei puts the state at risk.
"It's irresponsible of the government to be playing with fire, putting the national security of our country and our European and American allies at risk," warned Juan Bravo, Deputy Secretary of Finance for the Popular Party (PP) yesterday. He thus focused on the contract—worth €12.3 million—awarded by the Ministry of the Interior to the Chinese multinational Huawei for the management and storage of wiretaps ordered by judges and prosecutors. A contract, he warned, "poses a high risk to state security."
This award is "very serious" because it "affects Spain's national security," but it also "contravenes recommendations" from the EU and warnings from the United States. Back in 2018, during his first term, Donald Trump targeted this Chinese multinational, accusing it of espionage and encouraging an international boycott. And firms like Google and Microsoft cut business ties.
Read also The People's Party (PP) accuses Illa of taxing Catalans more "to open embassies in China." Juan Carlos Merino
"It's reckless that we have contracted our information to a company that our allies veto," Alberto Núñez Feijóo warned when the news broke. And the Minister of Digital Transformation, Óscar López, accused him of creating "unnecessary alarm," since in his opinion there is "no risk" in this contract with Huawei. Security is guaranteed, he argued, as it is a closed and unconnected system, so the data "is neither accessible nor hackable ."
These explanations, however, do not convince the PP, given "the high risk of having a Chinese company as a supplier of sensitive materials and the danger of espionage." Bravo warned that, in the US, the chairmen of the House and Senate Security Committees sent messages to the top national security officials warning that "Spain's confidential information could be used by the Chinese government."
And this is because, as he recalled, a Chinese law passed in June 2017 requires individuals, both inside and outside their country, to cooperate with intelligence services when requested. "That is, to provide them with all types of information," Bravo concluded.
"If Pedro Sánchez puts state secrets at risk, he will have to explain why," he warned, since Huawei, according to Bravo, is "banned by Brussels, NATO, and Washington," but could now access "judicial data, confidential recordings, or sensitive state files."
Read alsoThus, the People's Party (PP) will demand explanations from the government, in Congress or the Senate—where it has an absolute majority—not only from the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, but also from the Ministers of the Interior, Defense, and Foreign Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Margarita Robles, and José Manuel Albares. It will also demand the government's complete procurement file with Huawei, in order to review it, along with all cybersecurity reports justifying the award.
Bravo, on the other hand, intervened in the clash between Salvador Illa and Isabel Díaz Ayuso regarding the "tax dumping" that the Catalan is accusing the Madrid native of. He warned the president of the Generalitat: "Illa cannot try to cover up his government's mismanagement by attacking another autonomous community." He also questioned "the continued taxation of Catalans to open embassies in China," as Illa announced during his recent visit to Beijing.
He denounced this as "superfluous" spending, which he said would be better spent on healthcare, education, and social policies.
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