In liberal democracies, state secrets are not an anomaly or a crime, but a central aspect, if done right, of developing good governance. The position of the Spanish Government not to reveal the details of how and by whom it has carried out legal and illegal espionage / eavesdropping on pro-independence leaders and members of the Executive itself, appealing to the fact that “the CNI has a duty of secrecy ”, Creates confusion, because in this case it does not benefit the citizen, but rather the Government and ultimately the State, which represents an abuse of secrecy.

The philosopher Norberto Bobbio, in an article published in La Stampa in 1990, entitled "Secret and mystery: the invisible power", observed that "secret is not, in itself, a good or an evil". He argued that "it is good when it prevents the spread of what is good, useful, and opportune to be ignored, and it is bad when it prevents us from knowing what would be good, useful, and opportune to know." The position of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and Paz Esteban López, director of the CNI, defending and urging that there must be a "duty of secrecy", becomes a negative thing when secrecy is given the status of mystery from the central government to prevent the law from sanctioning possible bad practices. When this happens, the secret must be revealed, the veil removed; if not, it ends up causing resignation, as has been the case with Paz Esteban López, former director of the CNI, and acting as a firewall when the whole forest is already burning.

The position of the Spanish Government to defend the State's mechanisms for spying on citizens for the general good, which, in principle, should transmit security to society, has had the opposite effect, showing its fragility. Public opinion perceives the CNI as a deviant apparatus, a hidden, invisible and uncontrolled power. The reason why it is necessary to clarify the motivations of espionage and the identification of those who have benefited from it is to avoid increasing the suspicion of collaboration between the State and those who use it for their particular interests.

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