The popular parliamentary group was this time the one that flew into a rage. The president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, barely made herself heard, ordering to silence the conservative deputies, who demanded rectification in a loud voice and with great gestures. The trigger was an intervention by the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, during question time at the control session. Montero, who defended the comprehensive guarantee law against sexual violence, known as the law of only yes is yes, accused the PP of “promoting the culture of rape” and the chamber exploded.
The morning had started very hectic and the presidency was having a hard time keeping noise and murmurs at levels that allowed the speakers to be heard. The scandal of the far-right insults to the Minister of Equality last week had been followed this week by a Tuesday also troubled by the rigor of the presidency of the chamber to maintain parliamentary decorum and courtesy–which led to another controversy over the expulsion from the rostrum of the Vox deputy Patricia Rueda, after calling government allies “filoetarras” and “criminals”, but the storm broke out when the PP interpreted that Montero had made a slanderous accusation against him. Batet agreed and asked Montero to rectify, and the minister described the reason for her criticism – a Galician PP campaign that tries to prevent gender violence by pointing out the behaviors of potential victims, and not those of the aggressors – adding: “No I know what you call that.”
The PP has reacted by asking for the dismissal of the minister again and pointing to Sánchez, but behind the controversy, the actions of all reveal the anxiety of the parties before the framework of uncertainty that the coming electoral year poses. In the case of the PP, made invisible by the latest performances of a Vox that is rising in the polls at the expense of those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the protest allowed them to regain prominence in a control session in which the only notable moment had been the harsh counteroffensive by President Pedro Sánchez against the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal. Hence the prolonged scandal. Opposite, Irene Montero, who yesterday the socialist ministers took care to protect, once again carried out an attack in accordance with her pugnacious interpretation of feminism – immediately seconded by the social networks of Podemos, starting with the also minister Ione Belarra, and the Secretary of State for Equality, Ángeles Rodríguez, Pam – far from the transversality of the “feminization of politics” advocated by Sumar, the platform of Yolanda Díaz. That is to say, both the PP and Podemos patented the distinction of their political brand against the competitors of their fiefdoms, as Sánchez also did, with the smiling indifference with which he called Abascal “Little Red Riding Hood”, or Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announcing the advent of the sanchista reich.
It was not, then, an accident, any more than it was seven days ago. Hence, the purpose of the presidency of the chamber to embed the debates in chivalrous terms has derailed so quickly – also partly due to the ambiguity of what this week has been considered admissible or inadmissible for the session journal. The fury and the tears will return, because more than emotion they are speech in these times, baroque as a pain of Salzillo.
