"Snuggles" in Parliament: Sílvia Orriols demands the resignation of President Rull

BarcelonaThe Parliament has stopped experiencing the tense episodes of the Procés era, but the arrival of the far-right, with the emergence of Vox and then Aliança Catalana, also causes moments of unease in the Catalan chamber. This Thursday, one such incident occurred that, far from being an anecdote, has generated accusations and calls for resignation.

It all started with an intervention by the spokesperson for Comuns, David Cid, who reproached the complicity between the two Islamophobic parties. "Here they pretend to fight, but then in the corridors they are all "arrumacos"," he said in the hemicycle. Words that did not please the leader of Aliança, Sílvia Orriols at all, who asked to speak to denounce that the deputy had disrespected her.

After admitting that she had to look up the word in the dictionary because she had never heard it, the deputy demanded a correction. "Arrumacos means caresses and as far as I know I have not caressed or flirted with any deputy in this chamber and I would ask you to withdraw your offensive words," she concluded amidst laughter from Cid himself and other deputies from her group.

The President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, acknowledged that it might not have been "adequate vocabulary," but that he did not consider it "offensive." "What cheek," Orriols replied from her seat, who later tweeted to denounce an alleged double standard. "If someone had said it against a deputy from Junts, ERC, CUP, or Comuns, they would have spoken of "sexism" and "political violence"," she wrote on X.

Given the controversy on social networks, Rull has resorted to the dictionary to defend his actions. "Let's define the supposedly offensive concept. «Arrumaco» can be translated into Catalan as magarrufa, manyagueria, afalac. The mother gave the baby cuddles so that he would fall asleep, says the RAE. There is no lack of respect in using the figurative sense of a word that, in this case, is not coarse", he retorted. Explanations that have not convinced Orriols, who replied that he would only say one thing: "Rull resign!".

For his part, Cid has used irony to respond, calling the expression he used an ""weapon of mass destruction""". And he has reaffirmed his words after denouncing the threats he has received on social networks. ""All your insults and your threats on social networks, including death threats, will not silence me. Yes, AC has a good vibe with VOX. An iron fist with Junts, a velvet glove with VOX, that's what happens in Parliament. Both are far-right,"" he sentenced.