The provocations of the ultras overflow the glass in Congress

On any given day, in a boring commission of the Congress of Deputies, things like these can be heard: "Today totalitarianism began in Spain (...) You, gentlemen of the ultra-left in the Government, are not acting in a different way from Hitler and Stalin (…) They are dehumanizing the opposition, which is the previous step to the Gulag”.

Those words were pronounced on the 17th at parliamentary headquarters by Rubén Manso, Bank of Spain inspector, university professor, financial consultant for important companies and considered Vox's economic guru.

Manso is by no means an exalted orator and he was reeling off those tremendous conclusions without raising his voice.

No one of the recipients flinched in the Economy Commission, at most some ironic smiles could be appreciated.

And despite everything, the alarms went off again this week at the headquarters of popular sovereignty, after the macho insults of the Vox deputy Carla Toscano to the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero.

So much so that the almost always temperate spokesman for the PNV, Aitor Esteban, with 18 years of experience in Congress, was dispatched to journalists in the corridors: “What is going to be next?

This is a shame.

That people could cross the line on occasion?

Yes, but there was a minimum of decorum and a minimum of respect over and above ideological differences... But this... What a tavern!

A seedy tavern, that's what this has become”.

Esteban added an appreciation: "Not 100%, but I would say that 98% of the time it is Vox who generates this, with its aggressiveness, its insults and its provocations."

It is true that verbal aggressiveness has infected a good part of the Chamber.

And that on occasions the extreme right has also complained of violent attitudes against its members, such as when the ERC deputy Maria Dantas confronted Macarena Olona from the stairs that divide the chamber, yelling "fascist" at her or when Pablo Iglesias accused the spokesman of Vox, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, of “wanting a coup”.

But the list of rudeness and provocations from the extreme right far exceeds all.

The only two expelled in this legislature were members of Vox, Olona herself —"This is not a circus," rebuked the president of the Chamber, Meritxell Batet, in the face of the outrageous attempts by the then parliamentarian to alter the agenda of a session of the Permanent Deputation—and José María Sánchez, who called socialist Laura Berja a "witch" during a debate on abortion.

After what happened this week, several of the groups that support the Government believe that the time has come to take measures to stop the ultras and end their "impunity", which anticipates an intense debate next week in the Board of Spokesmen. .

Wednesday's was not the first time that members of Vox rubbed Irene Montero's relationship with the founder of Podemos, without then unleashing the tumult experienced this week.

What this time outraged the Chamber as a whole was the obvious sexual connotation of Toscano's words: "Her only merit from her is having studied Pablo Iglesias in depth."

The seats on the left exploded, while Vox cheered his partner like a hero.

Low down, some celebrated it with jokes.

When then it was the turn of the socialist Berja to go up to the rostrum, according to deputies from other groups close to the seats held by members of the extreme right, some of them commented between laughs: "The witch! The witch!"

The next day, Vox extended the

with triumphant airs.

The debate on the Budgets —to which the ultra party neither bothered to present amendments nor even vote for those of the others— went to the background.

Deputy Onofre Miralles paid homage to Toscano from the rostrum: “We are morally superior.

is

fought head-on”.

Then came the most histrionic of all remembered speeches by Víctor Sánchez del Real, who started shouting to imitate the accusations of "fascists" that left-wing parliamentarians had made against him, opened his jacket and showed the back of his neck to challenge the "murderous communists" and finally turned against the PP itself, citing some verses from the

: "The lukewarm cause the vomit from my mouth."

premeditated strategy

There is general agreement among the other groups that the scandal was planned by Vox, at a time when the polls place it in decline.

A Socialist deputy, César Ramos, even criticized the reaction to Toscano's insults the following day: "We made a mistake, because we have given publicity to those who were looking for it."

Beyond the moment, the first secretary of the Table and leader of the Catalan commons, Gerardo Pisarello, believes that Vox has followed a clear pattern since it arrived in Congress.

“It is a perfectly premeditated strategy to degrade and destabilize the institution, convey the image that Parliament is a yelling without any use and prevent debate.

There cannot be a democratic debate if there is a permanent destabilization of the conditions of the debate itself”, points out Pisarello,

The PP has joined the condemnation of the insults of Vox.

"Resorting to personal disqualification with offensive comments like the ones from the other day is something unfortunate that should never happen," deplores the

of the Popular Group, Carlos Rojas.

The first opposition party agrees that these episodes contribute to "increasing the detachment of society from the political class" and therefore harm "both the PP and parliamentarianism."

But Rojas attributes his share of responsibility to the left.

"The one who has sown his political action of tension and insults since its inception has been Podemos," he denounces.

The popular deputy makes this formation ugly for its "continuous disqualifications of the Head of State and the judiciary" and reproaches Montero for responding to the Vox attacks by describing this party as a "gang of fascists."

"I am not an example of political correctness," the ERC spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, hastened to admit.

“I was expelled once, though for something that now happens every day: standing up when told to sit down.”

But Rufián insists that no one – and that includes the PP, despite their often acrimonious confrontation with this party – has “overstepped the bounds” like Vox.

“All the other groups and also the media have to make an effort not to equate ourselves, so as not to convey the image that this is an ongoing scandal for which we are all responsible.

Vox is verbal and political violence.

And the dangerous thing is that this is later transferred to the street and to social networks”.

blunt answer

Several groups demand a forceful response and among them the most critical is Unidas Podemos, which points to the president, the socialist Batet.

"She has decided to put herself in profile in the face of Vox's political violence and this has created a climate of impunity," criticize sources from the leadership of the parliamentary group.

"Batet often presents it as a matter of education and regulations, when it is a political strategy to humiliate and dehumanize the adversary."

The PNV also sees passivity in the presidency and points out that the regulation requires speakers to stick to the issue under debate, the Budgets in the case of what happened in recent days.

The PP asks Batet for more "determination", without going into details, and reproaches him for, at the beginning of the legislature,

allow left-wing and pro-independence deputies to take office by introducing tag lines “contrary to the constitutional order” into their promises.

Rufián intervenes: “I think Batet has done a good job, but the time has come to set limits.

The Table has to assert itself”.

And he suggests measures such as economic sanctions to the deputies.

The riots in the Chamber, with the consequent degradation of Parliament's image, have been one of the great headaches for Batet in the last three years.

"He has spent hours and hours studying the regulations to find formulas that allow him to stop these incidents," point out socialist sources, "but the regulations are what they are."

The economic sanctions that Rufián proposes, for example, are not currently contemplated in the internal regulations of the Chamber.

To refute the supposed leniency that some attribute to Batet, his team recalls the expulsion of Olona, ​​an extreme measure that has been taken on a few occasions after 45 years of parliamentary democracy.

The president is hurt by some of the criticism, the same sources point out, especially because, for the moment,

none of the groups has presented him with a concrete proposal on what measures can be adopted.

"And she is willing to listen," they add.

Batet has often appealed to the "self-control" of the deputies so as not to engage in provocations or respond to insults, as Montero did when calling Vox a "band of fascists."

On this point, Pisarello disagrees: “Fascism is a historical phenomenon, it is an almost technical definition.

They also call us communists.

But that is very different from being labeled a murderer or a terrorist.”

Pisarello disagrees: “Fascism is a historical phenomenon, it is an almost technical definition.

They also call us communists.

But that is very different from being labeled a murderer or a terrorist.”

Pisarello disagrees: “Fascism is a historical phenomenon, it is an almost technical definition.

They also call us communists.

But that is very different from being labeled a murderer or a terrorist.”

Next Tuesday, the Table will not only deal with the demands of those who demand a stronger hand with Vox.

The extreme right has presented a letter to denounce two of the members of UP in the governing body of the Chamber, Pisarello and Javier Sánchez Serna, for joining the shouting that caused the insults to the Minister of Equality.

Pisarello denies it and the images of the plenary session seem to corroborate his version.

Several sources assure that the representative of Vox in the Table, Ignacio Gil Lázaro, has distinguished himself since the beginning of the legislature for participating from his position in the riots organized by his group.

This is one of the specialties of the extreme right: lighting the fire and then presenting itself as a victim.

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