The newspaper "Le Monde" revealed Tuesday evening that the numbers of the President of the Republic and several ministers had been the subject of surveillance in 2019 via the spy software Pegasus.
The Deputy Minister in charge of foreign trade and attractiveness, Franck Riester, guest on Europe 1, considered these facts "very serious".
INTERVIEW
The revelations are disturbing.
In 2019, the phone numbers of Emmanuel Macron and some members of the government, including former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and fourteen ministers, were monitored by the Pegasus software, reveals the daily
Le Monde
.
The Deputy Minister in charge of foreign trade and attractiveness, Franck Riester, reacted on Tuesday evening on Europe 1 to this information.
More than 50,000 phone lines around the world have been monitored through the Pegasus Project.
Including those of Emmanuel Macron, Edouard Philippe and his wife but also fourteen other ministers.
The Kingdom of Morocco could therefore have sucked all the data contained in the phones of the Head of State and members of the French government.
"The facts, if they are proven, are very serious. All the light must be shed, this is what justice will do since an investigation is opened by the Paris prosecutor's office but obviously these facts are very serious", assures Franck Riester.
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Can we then imagine economic sanctions against Morocco?
"We are not there at all," retorts the minister responsible for foreign trade and attractiveness.
"We will see when the time comes the diplomatic responses to be made," he adds.
"In cyberspace, there are considerable threats"
For him, this new information in the Pegasus case "a new example" of the dangerousness of cyberattacks.
"We must collectively mobilize a lot of energy to ensure that the rights that apply in the physical world also apply in cyberspace", he said at the microphone of Europe 1.
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"Today in cyberspace there are tremendous opportunities but considerable threats in terms of privacy protection, breaches of confidential information, espionage, cyber attacks, ransoms and incitement to hatred ... ", advance Franck Riester. Before adding: "this must be one of our national, international and European priorities".