The serious incident protagonized on Tuesday in Congress by the Vox deputy José María Sánchez García cannot be dismissed as just another episode of poor manners by a parliamentarian who, in his more than six years in the Chamber, has too often shown his disregard for basic behavioral norms and his machismo. In that session, Sánchez García had already been called to order when, in an intolerable act, he climbed onto the podium where the Presidency of the Chamber sits, confronted a legal advisor, and faced off with the first vice president, the socialist Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, who was acting as president at that moment. The image of aggression against the institution by Vox is unprecedented and cannot be overlooked. Nothing like this had been seen in democracy and it cannot happen again.
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The ultra deputy was protesting because, according to him, an ERC parliamentarian had called him “murderer” and “criminal.” Undoubtedly, if true, it would be reprehensible. But the Chamber has enough instruments that Sánchez García could have used instead of invading the Presidency’s space and confronting the third authority of the State in a barroom argument. The astonishment of most deputies, concerned that limits of violence in Congress are beginning to be exceeded, is justified.
This disregard for rules and decorum comes from a deputy who is a judge (on leave), lawyer, and professor. His behavior and subsequent justification reflect the concept that Spain’s third party has of institutions. Vox is accelerating its drift as an anti-system party and makes it explicit in its disdain for the Government or the Cortes. It is worth reminding Sánchez García that “murderer” and “criminal” are the insults that his party leader, Santiago Abascal, systematically directs at the Government. Polarization is a reality, but it is Vox that has legitimized insults in Congress. The contempt for the minimal consensuses of coexistence permeates many other institutions. On Wednesday, a Vox deputy in the Murcia Assembly advocated “combating, even with violence” abortion and euthanasia.
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The PSOE, along with nine other parties, tried on Wednesday to agree on an institutional declaration of condemnation. It had no chance since unanimity is required, and Vox would have voted no. What is unacceptable is the cynicism of the PP, a party that aspires to sit in the Presidency of the Cortes and did not join with the argument that there are other equally condemnable attitudes. It is understood that the PP does not want to upset the far right while negotiating three regional governments. But now, and ahead of future elections, Feijóo should clarify, without sidestepping as he did again this Thursday, whether he sees it as legitimate to govern with a party hostile to institutions and democratic forms.
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