On taking office as the Balearic minister for business, occupation and energy last summer, Alejandro Sáenz de San Pedro hired a team of private detectives to conduct a sweep of his office and others to search for hidden surveillance and listening devices.
The matter came to light after an opposition party, Més, queried the payment of an invoice for 4,235 euros to a private detective company, Cabanach Detectives Privados.
According to Partido Popular government sources, there was a suspicion that devices could have been hidden, but these same sources add that the police recommended a sweep of the offices and that it is "common" for such checks to be carried out.
The company's report is confidential, but it is understood that no devices were found. However, it is also said that a listening system had at some point been installed.
Més did not hold ministerial responsibility for any of the functions of the current ministry. Between 2015 and 2023, these were split between PSOE and Podemos in ministries with portfolios that did not precisely match those of the current ministry.
But Més do not believe that is normal to have to comb offices in search of devices. A spokesperson, Ferran Rosa, says that if the government had suspicions, it also had its own tools to do the combing and detect devices if they existed.
Rosa regrets that the hiring of detectives was more or less the first decision made by Alejandro Sáenz de San Pedro after joining the government. "He has not been known to do anything other than make this contract. Maybe what the detectives did was to look for the minister, about whom nothing is known."
Més have asked the Balearic parliament for information about the contract and the report.
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They should pay for it themselves, not taxpayers.