"The only thing I was thinking was where the slap would come from": a Vox deputy confronts the Vice President of Congress

BarcelonaControversy in Madrid after a Vox deputy confronted the presidency of Congress this Tuesday. The far-right representative José María Sánchez García ended up expelled from the hemicycle after climbing to the tribune and shouting in the face of the chamber's vice-president, the socialist Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Célis, who was leading the session at the time. "The only thing I was thinking was where the slap would come from," he admitted hours after the events. The Spanish government has compared the scene to the attempted coup of 23-F and the PSOE has already called for an exemplary sanction for the deputy of the ultras, who have justified their behavior. And the PP, which is negotiating with the far-right in several autonomies, has so far avoided commenting on the matter.

The incident took place during the debate of a non-law proposal promoted by the socialists to document the burning of books during Francoism, after a verbal confrontation from the seat between the Vox deputy and the ERC parliamentarian Jordi Salvador. Sánchez García asked to speak as a protest because, according to the account of the far-right party collected by the Efe agency, the republican had told him "Nazi, murderer, illiterate, and asshole," words that Esquerra has denied that Salvador used. The president of Congress, Francina Armengol, denied him the floor and called him to order for the first time.

Subsequently, and when Gómez de Celis took over leading the debate in place of Armengol, Sánchez García climbed to the tribune, where the members of the table sit, to continue the protest, and the vice-president called him to order for the second time. But it was in vain: after returning to his seat and asking once more to speak, again without success, the ultra parliamentarian climbed to the tribune for the second time and confronted Gómez de Celis directly, shouting and gesturing very close to him. The vice-president had to repeatedly tell him to leave the hemicycle before he obeyed.

In subsequent statements to Cadena Ser, the socialist representative on the board lamented the "tension" he experienced and admitted he feared being assaulted by the Vox deputy: "The only thing I was thinking was where the slap would come from". Gómez de Celis made it clear that what Sánchez García was asking him was "impossible", since the presidency "cannot intervene" in what happens in "benches very far" from the tribune. Celis, however, compared the images to those of Antonio Tejero in the tribune during the coup attempt of 23-F, and said that the ideology of the putschist and that of Vox are "the same".

The Spanish government has this Wednesday echoed the same comparison, through several ministers, and the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has called for a "forceful" sanction against the ultra deputy. "It cannot be that the verbal escalation that happens here one after another also becomes an escalation of this type of violence," he said. Awaiting the decision that the board may make, the expulsion from the plenary session this Tuesday implies that Sánchez García cannot intervene or vote this Wednesday in the session in Congress.

The far-right justifies the incident

Far from admitting the deputy's misconduct, who after confronting the table still went to protest at Armengol's office, Vox has blamed the Congress presidency for the incident in the stands. "The one who is wrong is the presidency for not exercising its function of control and order in the chamber. That is what it has to do," said Vox spokesperson Pepa Millán, whom Minister Félix Bolaños censured during the morning control session: "I thank you for not assaulting my seat with violence and shouting at me from ten centimeters away as some deputies from your group do," he told her.

Although Gómez de Celis thanked the PP table colleagues for defending him during the confrontation with Sánchez García, the socialists have taken advantage of the popular party's public silence on the matter. The party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, even dodged the direct question from journalists asking him to take a position. Minister Víctor Ángel Torres called it "serious" that the conservatives do not condemn the attitude of the far-right deputy: "He cannot stand aside from this [...] He must speak out forcefully," he concluded.