Vox spokesperson, Rocío Monasterio, speaks at a plenary session of the Madrid Assembly in March 2023.Javier Lizón (EFE)
Vox spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly, Rocío Monasterio, defended this Monday that she is the victim of “a media hunt” and that it is “absurd” for the chamber to investigate her for an alleged irregular vote in the plenary session on February 1, since what he tried, he has reiterated, was to extinguish an unoccupied seat.
The controversy, summarized in the official video of the session and collected by the Parliament's computer systems, revolves around two votes supposedly cast by the far-right leader in response to an initiative by Más Madrid.
One was made from her seat.
The other, from the one held until January 25 by José Luis Ruiz Bartolomé, resigned and not replaced by another deputy at that time.
As a result, Vox had more votes than deputies present in the plenary session.
An alleged irregular vote for which Monasterio risks being suspended for up to a month as a deputy, in addition to paying a fine.
More information
The Madrid Assembly activates the procedure to decide whether to sanction Rocío Monasterio for Vox's ghost vote
“It is impossible to vote on behalf of a deputy who was already discharged, he did not even have the sign on the seat, it is all absurd,” Monasterio argued this Monday, during the press conference after the spokespersons' meeting.
“I tried to turn off a seat that shouldn't be working, I hit every button there was.
I have absolutely nothing to hide.
It was like that,” he said.
“It did not seem right to me that the president gave indications that she had to sanction me.”
He added, in reference to the fact that Isabel Díaz Ayuso already advanced in the plenary session last Thursday that she should be fined.
“I found it shocking,” she insisted.
And she finished: “Since when does a Government publicly give orders to the president of the Assembly?”
These are the steps, actions and key dates of a controversy that could end with Monastery being sanctioned:
January 25
.
José Luis Ruiz Bartolomé, Monasterio's right-hand man in the chamber, leaves his seat to return to private activity.
Vox has one week to replace him before the first plenary session of the new session.
It is not that it is urgent either: the PP has an absolute majority and its presence will not change anything.
January 31
.
One day before the plenary session, Pablo Gutiérrez de Cabiedes resigns from occupying the seat, which corresponds to him because he is next on the electoral list.
His decision exacerbates the crisis of a party shaken from controversy to controversy in recent months.
And so, Vox arrives at the plenary session the next day without its new deputy, Javier Pérez, having taken office and, therefore, with one less vote and an empty chair.
February 1st
.
At the end of the plenary session, the president of the Assembly, Enrique Ossorio (PP), takes the floor to give a warning before voting begins.
“Before starting to vote, I clarify that a deputy, by mistake, has pressed the presence button in two different seats,” says the former regional vice president, who downplays that action.
The controversy, in fact, explodes later, when the technical services of the Chamber detect that a vote has been taken from the seat of Ruiz Bartolomé, who is no longer a deputy and has not been replaced by Vox.
That is, someone has voted twice.
February 5th
.
Ossorio decides to open an investigation and all eyes immediately turn to Monasterio.
Because Henríquez de Luna admits in the meeting of spokespersons that he activated two different places as present.
He did not want the seat next to Monastery's to be empty, which would be unsightly for the cameras, but he finally returned to his seat.
The leader is the one who comes to admit having voted several times, although she does not say it clearly either.
“It's technology stuff,” he laughs during a press conference in which he describes himself pressing and unpressing buttons in a hurry to try to turn off the seat.
But no one takes the matter as a joke in Parliament.
And much less the PP, which sees an ideal opportunity to settle outstanding accounts with her former partner, or in the left-wing opposition, in which Más Madrid registers a letter requesting that she be suspended as a deputy for 30 days.
This has never happened in the Madrid Assembly, according to a spokesperson for the institution.
But there are precedents outside the region.
For example, in the Basque Country.
There, in 2003, Parliament sanctioned Carlos Iturgaiz with one month without being able to exercise his rights for having activated the electronic presence indicator in the Chamber of his colleague Jaime Mayor Oreja.
February 8th
.
In the middle of a control session with his Government, Ayuso is committed to sanctioning Monasterio for his actions.
“If you go on a road where you have to travel at 80 [kilometers per hour], and they catch you at 140, Mrs. Monasterio, you will understand that you will have to be fined,” says the regional president.
“What has not been seen in life is that I vote for another deputy who is absent,” she denounces.
Monasterio responds by assuring that the conservative leader seeks to expel her from the Chamber at all costs, and she jokes, gesturing, when the end of the session comes, it is time for her to vote, and she makes grandiloquent movements at every step.
February 9
.
This leads to Friday, when the Assembly Board decides to launch the process that will likely end up sanctioning the spokesperson of the far-right party.
In this way, Enrique Ossorio will provide a writing detailing what happened at the next meeting of the Board, scheduled for this Friday;
identifying the author of the facts investigated;
specifying “the sanctions that may apply, without prejudice to what results from the instruction”;
and proposing the procedure and the competent body that should govern this possible sanction, which, if applicable, would be approved by the Table, where the PP has an absolute majority.
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