Fernando Alvarado / EFE
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Vox is sold as a party of order. But the reality is that in the Congress of Deputies and other regional parliaments it seeks disorder and destabilize the political debate and the institutions themselves. Polarize to the maximum, following the postulates of Steve Bannon. With the maxims for their objectives: to delegitimize the current power and charge against the Trump-style press to create antagonists and sell that only they tell the ‘truth’.
During these days Vox has deployed this technique with all its rawness. And he has also done so in the middle of a debate that he wanted to explode on all sides: the beginning of the PSOE law to reform the Penal Code and include jail for people who harass women near the clinics where they are going to abort. A standard that has taken its first step with the approval of all groups except for PP and Vox.
A crucial debate for many women and one that complements the right to abortion. But Vox conscientiously dynamited him with the attitude of one of his deputies who called the PSOE Equality spokesperson in the Lower House, Laura Berja, a “witch”, in charge of defending the text. All this caused a spectacle that led to Jose Maria Sanchez Garcia up to three times and, consequently, be expelled.
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But the parliamentarian passed the limit disobeying the first vice president of Congress, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, who expelled him. He stayed in the Hemicycle, sitting next to Macarena Olona, violating the regulation of the Lower House. And supported by his entire parliamentary group. A full-blown disobedience to the institution that represents popular sovereignty.
The Congress regulations establish it in Article 104: “The Deputy or speaker who has been called to order three times in the same session, warned the second time of the consequences of a third call, will have the word and the President, without debate, may impose the sanction of not attending the rest of the session ”.
The deputy of Vox, therefore, breached the regulation of the Lower House, something that, on the other hand, those of Santiago Abascal denounce on other occasions, such as taking the formulas of compliance of the pro-independence deputies to the Constitutional Court. This time they did not care about the norm and the law. The law, only when it interests them.
In addition, it was a shock to the Presidency of Congress, exercised at that time by Gómez de Celis. He even climbed to the highest place in the Chamber. In the end, the Sevillian sought a Solomonic decision by making the Vox deputy, judge on leave of absence and professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Seville withdraw his words. As the first vice president of Congress later said, what happened was something “unheard of” and he recalled Meritxell Batet’s request at the beginning of the session to seek harmony and agreement.
The Government is clear about Vox’s intention: to dynamite Congress itself. The spokesperson herself, Isabel Rodríguez, has reproached Macarena Olona during the control session: “when they skip the regulations of this House and do not comply with the norms, they are deteriorating the institutions and thereby weakening the State ”. “It is not so far from the independentistas whom they criticize,” said the Minister of Territorial Policy.
Socialists have also linked this attitude to the “hate” speeches that spread during these days: “A clear demonstration that there are political formations that in the activity of the Chamber continue to encourage these dynamics of rejection and non-tolerance,” according to denounced the new spokesman, Héctor Gómez.
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Precisely Olona was another of the protagonists for her attitude to the press: she faced the informant Cristina Pérez in Congress, who asked her about those “witch” statements by the Vox deputy. In a defiant tone, he tried to intimidate the informant in the corridors of Congress and rebuked her question. Another red line crossed and reminiscent of the attitude of the Trump Administration against the media. “Be respectful of the media and its professionals,” Rodríguez has also asked him.
Vox has among its objectives the criticism of the media, which it tries to discredit. For example, it has vetoed the presence of The country, the Ser Chain and The HuffPost on their election nights claiming that it is a private space.
This attitude of Vox in Congress is also transferred to other regional parliaments. In recent months the most palpable case has been that of the Ceuta Assembly, where the president Juan Jesus Vivas (PP) it has had to cut the debates on several occasions due to the insults and provocations of the extreme right to the rest of the groups.
Always with the idea of delegitimizing the institutions and the rulers. Abascal himself dedicates himself in the debates in Congress to say that it is an illegitimate government and even claims that it is the worst Executive in the last eighty years, thus legitimizing the Franco regime and the dictatorship. Objective: to discredit the current institutions … to get hold of them.
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