On Friday, reliable sources from the National Police categorically denied that the police had recommended that there should be a sweep for possible hidden spy devices at Balearic government offices. "There is no official document, therefore it is false."
These sources added that they do not recommend searching for bugs. "It would be another thing if a police officer had suggested this possibility to them (the government) in a private capacity, but it was never done officially, so we deny that version."
This denial follows the report that a private detective company had been contracted to look for listening devices in the office of the minister for business, occupation and energy, Alejandro Sáenz de San Pedro, and in offices elsewhere in the ministry. According to the government, there was a police recommendation for this to have been done, a fact reiterated on Friday by government spokesperson, Antoni Costa.
The cost of hiring the company was 4,235 euros. The police sources explain that they (the police) could have carried out the sweep for free, if there had been an official request from the government. "But we insist that this wasn't made." There is a special police unit, based in Madrid, which carries out these sweeps. "These are done relatively frequently, when there are suspicions of being spied on."
Between 2019 and 2023, the offices were occupied by the former Balearic high court judge and Podemos minister, Juan Pedro Yllanes. On Friday, he said that he was amazed when he read the reports, stressing that he hadn't had any devices installed (he was retiring from politics in any event) and nor had he ever felt that there were devices in his office. "All this seems like nonsense. I can't understand it."
It wasn't Yllanes who formally handed over to Sáenz de San Pedro last summer. This was done by the PSOE minister Iago Negueruela, who occupied the office from 2015 to 2019. PSOE are now demanding that the government presents the police report which the government maintains led Sáenz de San Pedro to hire detectives.
Llorenç Pou, who was a ministerial director-general under Negueruela, said on Friday: "If this were not so serious it would seem like a joke. This is the last thing that could have been expected from Sáenz de San Pedro, a minister who is totally absent and whose problems are piling up."
Antoni Costa explained on Friday that the suspicion regarding hidden devices was limited to Sáenz de San Pedro's ministry and that no detectives were hired by any other ministry. "If it was decided to check for the existence of microphones, it was on the advice of the National Police." He added that the report is internal and that he could not comment on it.
The detective company didn't find any devices, but it has been reported that evidence was supposedly found of there having been devices in the past. Even if only informally, government sources have suggested that it was Negueruela who ordered the microphones to spy on Yllanes. The former minister, now PSOE spokesperson, has responded: "This is outrageous. It seems like Netflix. They watch a lot of movies. I flatly deny such nonsense. There will be questions in parliament."