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Junqueras corrects Vidal

The explanations of the Generalitat vice-President do not convince the opposition groups which will now call for an official enquiry into the matter

“The doubts created by Santi Vidal's statements have hurt the government and the professionals in the tax agency.” The Ceneralitat's vice-President, Oriol Junqueras, acknowledged the damage caused by the controversy related to the former ERC senator but one by one denied all claims made by the former judge during his appearance in the Institutional Affairs committee related to the management of tax data by the government. Vidal had claimed in a number of conferences around the country that the executive had obtained these data illegally.

The vice-President stressed that the former senator resigned at his own request the day after newspaper El País published the information and that he, along with Finance Secretary Lluís Salvador, had called for an investigation into the matter by the Catalan Data Protection Agency .

Junqueras denied Vidal's claims, saying the government had not spied on taxpayers, nor illegally used tax data, that there were no police officers being trained in counterintelligence abroad, that there was no list of judges loyal to the independence movement and that there were no funds related to any referendum camouflaged in the budget.

The opposition groups however, were not convinced and questioned why, if the Generalitat classed Vidal's claims as libelous, it had not taken legal action in the matter. The belief among the opposition is that Vidal was privy to information due to his close connections to all areas of the government and the independence movement, and as such, announced that they would now take steps to call for an official commission of enquiry to look into the case.

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