Podemos has asked the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, for protection for the “forced entry” to the offices of the four deputies that the party retains and the emptying of their belongings, which have been deposited in a hallway.
The party led by Ione Belarra has denounced "irregular access to the offices of its deputies" at the Chamber's police station, as it assures that it has no communication about changes in the personal work spaces allocated to its parliamentarians.
Sumar sources have explained that, since last December, when Podemos left the Yolanda Díaz confluence to join the Mixed Group, they had asked the Belarra deputies to change offices.
The Congressional Board decided in a meeting on January 30 to implement this change, as officially confirmed by the Chamber.
None of the sources has clarified whether the emptying has been carried out by Sumar personnel.
There is an investigation underway.
The four Podemos deputies left the Sumar Group in December and moved en bloc to the Mixed Group (actually there were five, but one of them, Lilith Verstrynge, announced on January 26 that she was leaving Podemos and the Congress).
The offices of these four parliamentarians are on the fourth floor of Congress, where Sumar is still installed.
Sources from this group assure that they were given a “reasonable time” to vacate them.
Last week, they add, the Board issued an instruction for the four rooms to be evicted, to which Podemos did not respond.
They raided their offices and threw their personal and private belongings in the hallway for everyone to see.
@ Podemos is right to report this to Francina Armengol and to the Police.
It is very serious and we must get to the bottom of the matter.
https://t.co/urvtBmOV7y
— Pablo Echenique (@PabloEchenique) February 7, 2024
The group founded by Pablo Iglesias affirms that it was unaware of this instruction, since it assures that it has not received "any notification referring to the offices of its deputies."
Podemos clings to the fact that the Board's resolution literally only notifies that it is agreed to “modify the distribution of spaces between the parliamentary groups” and “assign” to the Joint Parliamentary Group “offices 53 and 56 on the 3rd floor of the building.” of expansion 2 that previously belonged to the Sumar group.”
The text does not say that Podemos deputies must leave their previous office, but it does assign new offices to the Mixto, so parliamentary sources reason that this would be the location of its four parliamentarians.
In statements to the media, the general secretary of Sumar, Txema Guijarro, has reiterated that the Board made the decision days ago on the change of offices.
“These changes will have to occur normally.
We have been waiting for them to act because we have colleagues who have to work and cannot settle.
We hope it is resolved as soon as possible,” he explained.
Belarra's party denounces that there has been "irregular access" to the offices, from which their belongings have been removed, "and deposited in a passage area of the Chamber."
Podemos considers these events “of the utmost seriousness” and hopes that Armengol “acts” and the police “clarifies the facts in case they constitute a crime.”
The Congress offices are not personal, but rather the Chamber assigns them to the parliamentary groups based on a distribution agreement that is adopted at the beginning of each legislature.
And when there are relays or changes from one group to another, time is given to evacuate them or for the Chamber staff to proceed to empty them.