The Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that the government spied on its opponents and represented the country's biggest crisis for democracy since the end of communism.
A security watchdog said last week that Pegasus had been used to target prominent opposition figures, with Polish media dubbing the scandal a Polish Watergate It is unprecedented in our history, former EU chief Tusk, now head of the Civic Platform party.
This is the biggest crisis for democracy since 1989. Tusk also called for a parliamentary inquiry into allegations that Pegasus was used against Krzysztof Brejza, a member of his party who co-managed the 2019 election campaign.
The Citizen Lab, a Canada-based cybersecurity watchdog, said Pegasus had also been used against Roman Giertych, a lawyer who is involved in cases against the ruling Law and Justice PiS party, and Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor and opposition figure.
The user can read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location and even turn on their camera without them knowing, and even turn their phones targeted by Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices.
The malware, created by Israeli technology firm the NSO Group, was engulfed in controversy earlier this year after a collaboration between media outlets reported that governments used Pegasus to spy on activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians.
Polish media likened the allegations to a Polish Watergate referring to a scandal over political campaign dirty tricks that led to former US president Richard Nixon s resignation in 1974.
If it is confirmed, it could potentially turn out to be the work of foreign secret services, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who said he had no knowledge of any wiretapping.
Stanislaw Zaryn, the ministry's spokesman, said the allegations that Polish services use these methods in operational work for political purposes are false. He did not confirm or deny whether Poland had used Pegasus, but said Polish operations can only be carried out on request from the prosecutor general and after a court order.