The Parliament will sanction Sílvia Orriols and Joan Garriga for their "disrespectful" faults

BarcelonaParliament acted this Tuesday against the violations of the Code of Conduct in the hemicycle. After nine months and dragging four files –one from Aliança Catalana and three from Vox– before the Committee on the Status of Deputies, the body chaired by Antoni Castellà (Junts) agreed, in a secret closed-door session, to classify the actions of the leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, as a minor offense. Now the committee will transfer this opinion to the bureau of Parliament, which will be responsible for deciding and applying the final sanction. This punishment can range from a public reprimand to a financial fine of between 600 and 12,000 euros.

The decision certifies that the deputy's statements are not protected by parliamentary freedom of expression, but rather cross the red lines of "respectful conduct towards other deputies [...] without discrimination based on [...] origin or social or ethnic condition," as stipulated by article seven of the Code of Conduct.

The Orriols case, which was the first to be initiated, dates back to April 2025 at the request of ERC.The Republicans reported the use of "repeated" and "vexatious" expressions by the far-right leader against the Republican deputy Najat Driouech. Specifically, Orriols accused Driouech of "flaunting Islamic misogyny" for wearing a veil, and attacked Esquerra for "whitewashing discrimination and the submission of women." These words, as the committee has ruled today after hearing all parties and legal services, constitute a violation of the Code of Conduct. Additionally, in Orriols' case, as it involves a direct accusation against another deputy, the committee has indicated to the parliamentary groups the possibility of bringing these statements before the public prosecutor's office for hate speech.

The Aliança deputy has described the resolution as a "lamentable spectacle." "Absolute opacity. Advisors and press were immediately expelled from the room," Orriols denounced, who also highlighted that Rosa Maria Sobirana, an Aliança deputy present at the committee, was prohibited from photographing the file to "present it to the party's legal services."

This Tuesday's session also served to unblock the three remaining proceedings, all of them against Vox deputies. The parliamentary body has ruled that the actions of the party's spokesperson, Joan Garriga, also constitute a minor offense. One of the cases was for stating, in May 2025,that the socialists spent money on "drugs and prostitutes", and another, initiated in October by ERC, Comuns, and the CUP,for calling the executed president Lluís Companys an "assassin", and for hanging posters with the inscription "Companys assassin" on the party's office windows.

In contrast, in the third proceeding, directed against deputy Júlia Calvet, the committee has determined that her statements are protected under parliamentary freedom of expression and, therefore, dismisses sanctioning her. Calvet had been summoned for having accused the Minister of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo, of leading "one of the biggest corruption cases in the history of this Parliament" at the DGAIA.

The commission and the rank of law

Established in June 2024, the Committee on the Status of Deputies is composed of one representative from each group with weighted voting, and plays a fundamental role in the application of the Deputies' Code of Conduct. Thus, in the event of a possible infraction, the board - ex officio or at the request of a group - can request a report from the committee to resolve the case.

Despite Tuesday's resolution, the committee still has pending analyses of several complaints it has initiated, all against representatives of Vox. On one hand, initiated ex officio by the board, the committee must confront the controversial statements of Alberto Tarradas, who, also in reference to Driouechstated from the hemicycle's altar that "for the moment" he will not deport her. On the other hand, at the proposal of the CUP, the body will have to study the cases of Rafael Villafranca, who in March of this year called the members of the anti-capitalist party "criminals", and María Elisa García Fuster, who in May described former president Lluís Companys as a "common murderer" during the control commission of the Catalan Audiovisual Corporation. Finally, at the request of the PSC, an expediente must also be resolved again against Júlia Calvet for having questioned the presence of the entity Joventut Àfrica Negra at the Youth Policies Commission, where she stated that "one cannot be supportive of outsiders".

The committee will have to manage these cases in the coming months, and for this reason has asked the board "to transfer to the parliamentary groups a reform of the regulations to better adapt and more precisely define what is to be done in these types" of cases, as the Code of Conduct itself does not provide for the figure of hate crimes. 

Tarradas' controversial statements, however, have marked a turning point in the management of hate speech in Parliament. Thus, in parallel to the committee's activity, the PSC, Junts, ERC, Comuns, and the CUP are finalizing a reform of the regulations to give legal status to sanctions, incorporating the Code of Conduct into the same normative text, given that it currently does not have this status and this can complicate its application if those affected decide to appeal decisions in court.

With the Commission still meeting, from the People's Party, it has been argued that current regulations "attack freedom of expression", and from Vox they have assured that the objective is "to censor the truth", while the Comuns have pointed out that "we are no longer in times of warnings, but in times of saying enough".