The Galician deputy who caused chaos with pepper spray (and who comes a lot to Catalonia)

BarcelonaThe pepper spray that PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez (Bande, 1975) showed on Wednesday in Congress to show solidarity with Ceuta triggered chaos. It happened after the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, expelled her from the chamber and a party employee emptied the spray in the restroom. In total, a dozen people received medical attention, three floors of the lower house were closed, and one worker went on sick leave. But who is Vázquez?

This Galician woman, a native of a town that does not reach 1,500 inhabitants, has been a deputy since 2000, when she arrived at the position at 25 years old. She has held the seat since then, and only lost it in 2008 and 2015. She joined the PP's executive leadership during the time of Pablo Casado and is still there today, with responsibilities in the interior area. Known for her outbursts and her forcefulness in fighting political rivals, the woman who was also mayor of her town between 2006 and 2007 "has come to Catalonia a lot," according to PP sources. The reason is that "they ask for her in many places," among other things because she is known for Risto Mejide's program on Cuatro, where "she is very tough."

In fact, Vázquez is considered one of the "most vehement" people in the PP parliamentary group in Congress, along with Jaime de los Santos. Sant Cugat del Vallès, El Vendrell, Girona, and Sant Sadurní d'Anoia are some of the towns that have received her visit. A politician since the age of 25, she took the civil service exam for the National Police, but there is no record of her having practiced. In her public profile in Congress, Vázquez defines herself as having a law degree and being a career civil servant.

From rural Galicia, her first language is Galician and she defines herself as a "Galicianist." Head of the list for Ourense since 2019, she is very active in any issue that affects the National Police, which ties in with her position as interior spokesperson. However, some controversies are also known about her.

Multiple controversies

In Mejide's program –which, by the way, applauded her for showing pepper spray so that the deputies would feel "a hundredth part of what the people of Ceuta experience"– she has been debunked live many times. For example, she said that Villafranco "was called that before the dictatorship" and that her colleagues had told her so, and she had to be corrected because the name did indeed have to do with the dictator Francisco Franco.

"From Machiavelli I know the separation of powers that has just killed Sánchez," she said in 2024, confusing the Tuscan Machiavelli with the Frenchman Montesquieu. She also surprised people by saying, regarding the amnesty law, that "what Congress approves is not mandatory for a judge to comply with": "Imagine the barbarity if we were to pass a law that allows slavery," she added. The clashes with Podemos, the PNV, and those related to ETA have been constant, and her vehemence even led her to relativize the tax fraud of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner by saying that "anyone can have a tax infringement."