The PSIB and MÉS denounce the "illegal leak" of the data of the aid to Pilar López
The groups are asking to investigate how data about the municipal aid received by the woman, who spent two months sleeping in a car, reached a media outlet.
PalmaMÉS per Palma and the PSOE have asked the Palma City Council to investigate how the data regarding the municipal financial aid received by Pilar López has been leaked, the 65-year-old woman who slept in a car for two months after losing her home and who publicly denounced her situation before the Parliament and at the Cort plenary session.
The eco-sovereigntist group considers it "extremely serious" that a media outlet has published information about the aid received by López and wants to determine if this data came from a municipal file. MÉS does not consider it proven that there has been an "illegal leak," but demands an investigation into the origin of the information.
In a tweet, PSOE councilor Xisco Dalmau announced that his party has registered a written request for information to the Social Services Area of the Palma City Council. "We want to know who and how the custody of information that should be anonymous was broken, to protect the person's privacy," he wrote on social media.
MÉS per Palma councilor Miquel Àngel Contreras has directly pointed to the Councilor for Social Welfare, Lourdes Roca, as the political head of the department that manages these files, and also demands that Mayor Jaime Martínez help clarify the facts. "Where did this information come from? Who had access to it? Who authorized it to be released?" asked Contreras, who believes that it cannot be allowed for the files of vulnerable people to end up publicly exposed.
Duty of confidentiality
The party recalls that data protection regulations establish a duty of confidentiality for people involved in the processing of personal information. Therefore, it asks to determine whether López's economic data emerged irregularly from a municipal file and, if confirmed, that responsibilities be clarified.
PSIB deputy Pilar Costa also wrote on social media to criticize the handling of the information. "President Prohens, annoyed by the situation, uses her tentacles with the City Council and uses (as always) IB3, which ends up revealing some aid that the victim is supposed to have received to diminish their credibility," she wrote. The former government spokesperson under Francina Armengol considers that "this infringes upon the right to privacy and the data protection law".
The case of Pilar López has returned to the center of political debate this week. The woman went on Tuesday to Parliament to explain to the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, the situation she has experienced after the eviction from her home. According to what she explained, she spent the months of July and August sleeping inside her vehicle.
Cort, for its part, has defended that the municipal Social Services have followed the case and that, after the eviction, it processed aid to cover her accommodation in a guesthouse. The City Council announced in September that it would exceptionally maintain this aid while waiting for a place in a residential facility.