Spanish Congress moves to fine deputies up to €2,000 and suspend them after Vox member climbed dais
The lower house approved initial consideration of a rule change that would penalise deputies who seriously breach order, prompted by a mid‑April confrontation between a Vox member and the vice‑president.
Incident that sparked the reform
On 14 April the Vox deputy José María Sánchez García was expelled from the plenary session after twice climbing to the presidential dais. He first remonstrated with a legal officer, then confronted the first vice‑president, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, who was chairing the sitting. Sánchez García said he was protesting that an ERC deputy had called him a “criminal” and “murderer” without the chair granting him the floor to denounce it. His behaviour prompted the president of the chamber, Francina Armengol, to call for sanctions.
The proposed changes
The PSOE‑drafted reform introduces a new provision allowing the temporary suspension of any deputy who “by deed or word exercises, within the parliamentary premises, serious violence or intimidation against the Presidency or the Board … or against the body of legal officers or doorkeepers”. It also sets financial penalties: €1,000 for a deputy expelled after being called to order, rising to €2,000 if the deputy refuses the order to leave the chamber. The plenary would decide on suspension; fines would be automatic under certain circumstances.
Democracy cannot remain impassive when certain behaviours seek to replace debate with intimidation, respect with harassment, the word with aggression.
Political clash during the debate
The take‑into‑consideration vote on 11 June passed with the support of all parliamentary groups except the PP, Vox and UPN. PP speaker Marta González Vázquez accused the Socialist‑led majority of turning the chamber into “the Government’s delegation on Carrera de San Jerónimo”. She argued the existing disciplinary regime was sufficient and blamed the loss of presidential authority under Armengol for the deterioration of decorum: “With the previous 12 presidents it was never thought necessary to reform these rules because presidential authority acted as a deterrent. Today we see a worrying abdication of duty.”
Sánchez García himself took the floor for Vox, claiming that “there is no article that forbids deputies to approach or climb onto the dais” and that his purpose was “to talk, not to intimidate”. He called the move an expression of “democratic totalitarianism” and insisted he was the offended party. The deputy added that “the offended man was sanctioned”.
Going up to the dais to speak is not an infraction. There is nothing that bans it.
Warnings from allied parties
Several groups that back the government warned that the measures could set a dangerous precedent. Néstor Rego of the BNG called it “bad business to leave the work done for them” and cautioned that a PP‑Vox majority in the future might turn the new rules against minorities. ERC’s Pilar Vallugera asked for “great caution” in drafting the text and urged that sanctions be extended to the leadership of groups that systematically encourage such conduct. She noted that individual outbursts were often part of a party‑wide strategy.
It’s a bad deal to hand them the finished work.
The reform will now be negotiated in committee. The PSOE’s Rafaela Romero dismissed accusations of polarisation, arguing that one side is consistently responsible for harassment and doxing, while the other merely defends institutional rules.
