The PP stars in an incident with pepper spray in Congress that leaves a worker on sick leave and a complaint

Madrid / BarcelonaChaos in Congress following a controversial intervention by PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez, who displayed pepper spray and ended up being expelled from the hemicycle. But the absurdity did not end there. Later, the Spanish lower house had to seal off three restrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room due to the presence of a toxic substance. A PP staffer ended up admitting that he had handled and triggered the pepper spray while cleaning it at the request of the parliamentarian. Twelve people received medical assistance. Among them, there is a member of the Mauritanian delegation who was visiting the chamber and had to be treated for vomiting caused by the strong smell of gas. Furthermore, a woman from the kitchen is on sick leave due to intoxication –by mandate of her mutual insurance company– and another worker has filed a complaint. Let's take this step by step.

The worker for Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party, whom cameras captured putting the canister into his shirt pocket, reported that –after she displayed it during the control session of the Spanish government– the deputy handed him the canister and asked him to wash it because there were residues on the outside. After being expelled, in front of the cameras, she had assured that it was empty because she had emptied it previously on the street. The PP worker explained that he washed it, dried it, and triggered it twice in the men's restroom to verify that no product remained inside. Upon doing so, a small amount of substance came out –all according to his version–, but he asserts that he did not notice any effect nor did he smell anything.

However, this contrasts with the version of other witnesses in the lower house, who noticed itching in their throats, noses, and eyes in different parts of the facilities. Even in the area where journalists work. Vox requested the evacuation of its floor after some workers noticed discomfort there. The theory is that the gas concentrated in the restrooms and spread through the ventilation ducts. In this regard, the chamber has reviewed security cameras to clarify what happened and is studying the possibility of making a statement public regarding the images. The incident will also have to be recorded in a report by the secretary-general, which will be released in the coming days.

In light of these events, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has described the members of the Popular Party who caused the total chaos in Congress as “washed-up criminals”. The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has labeled the PP an “anti-system party”. “When one thinks that the PP cannot degrade itself any further, someone appears within its ranks who makes them sink even lower,” he added. For his part, the Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, has attributed the episode to “political arrogance”.

The expulsion of Ana Vázquez

The controversy erupted ten minutes before ten in the morning, when the President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, scolded Ana Vázquez –a veteran deputy in charge of Interior affairs– for having exhibited a pepper spray canister: “I must call you to order for having displayed a weapon,” said Armengol, which unleashed a murmur of voices and protests from the PP bench. A while earlier, the PP deputy had dubbed the spray a “symbol of the lack of freedoms” that “women in Ceuta suffer” and had presented it as “basic school supplies”.

Minutes later, the President of the Congress demanded that she leave the chamber to deposit the canister and referred to article 101 of the Regulations, which punishes with a “temporary suspension” of parliamentary status –which must be validated by the plenary session– the fact that a parliamentarian “carries weapons inside the parliamentary precinct”. “This cannot be raised in the house of the people's sovereignty and the house of democracy,” alleged Armengol.

Sources from her team have sent the press a fragment of the Arms Regulation that refers to “personal defense sprays”. It stipulates that possessing and using them is prohibited, although it provides an exception if they have been validated by the Ministry of Health. In this case, they can only be sold to adults. Armengol had to call the deputy to order again, who ended up leaving the chamber amid applause from the Popular Party benches. Alberto Núñez Feijóo avoided both standing up and applauding. Subsequently, in an informal conversation with journalists, the PP leader protested against the actions of the President of Congress: “She is the one who inflames the debate and who is degrading the chamber,” he said.

After the incident, the Popular Party deputy claimed that the canister was empty, announced that she would take measures against the President of Congress, and questioned her actions: “Does she mean that children in Ceuta go to school with weapons? That all women carry weapons?”, she asked. Later, she did a media tour across different television stations and, after initially refusing to hand over the canister, she went to the Congress police station to deliver it. The PP maintains that the deputy knows how these types of sprays work and denies that they are a weapon.