Vox spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly, Rocío Monasterio, has been fined 15 days' pay for having voted twice on the same initiative in the plenary session on February 1. Although the leader of the ultra party faced being suspended as a deputy for a period of one month, in addition to losing her salary during that time (charges 4,244.85 euros per month), the instructor of the file opened against her, Mercedes Zarzalejo, advocated applying the principle of proportionality, since her vote did not affect the result of the initiative put to vote (the amendment to the entirety presented by Más Madrid against the economic law Government circular). And this Wednesday, the Assembly Board, which regulates the day-to-day running of the Chamber, has adopted that approach, while Monasterio has already announced that it will appeal. The spokesperson for the ultra party considers herself a victim of “discriminatory and arbitrary” treatment.
Thus, Vox argues that the Assembly system counted in the plenary session on September 14 up to four votes from councilor Emilio Viciana, who does not have the right to vote because he was not on the electoral lists. And so it was, despite the fact that the head of Education was not in Parliament. The explanation, according to a Parliament spokesperson, is that the Minister of Digitalization, Miguel López Valverde, would have voted from the seat of his Government colleague after an assignment error by the Chamber's services. The difference with Monasterio, this interlocutor pointed out, is that no one voted twice, nor did any group have more votes than they should have, nor was there an attempt to hide the maneuver, since the president of Parliament, Enrique Ossorio, notified all the deputies of what that was happening. This thesis was supported by a report from the Assembly's IT Directorate, which was published by the Europa Press agency.
“The seat of the Minister of Education (number 12) was enabled to vote and not the seat of the Minister of Digitalization (number 11)”, and in the voting the votes of the Minister López-Valverde were registered in the seat of the Minister Viciana, states that document, which recalls: “The president submitted to the consideration of the House the acceptance of the votes cast in the terms set forth above and the House expressed its agreement by assent.”
A different case is that of Monasterio, to which the instructor of her case dedicates very harsh words. “She is considered to be the author of the following behaviors,” reads the document signed by Zarzalejo about the votes cast from the spokesperson's seat (number 125) and the adjacent one (number 126), empty because its occupant had resigned and still his replacement had not been appointed. “Execute a double vote from two different seats […]; thereby violating the principle of personality of the vote and its non-delegable nature […], thereby consciously and intentionally altering the order of the voting,” he continues. This represents, he adds, “an attack against the dignity of the Assembly and against the discipline that requires all the deputies of the Chamber.”
Despite this, the sanction proposal adds, “it can be seen that the offending conduct, even if there is intentionality in it, is not repeated nor is there any antecedent that could confirm continuity, persistence or recidivism of the lady deputy, so it is proposed that the suspension of economic rights […] extends for the minimum period […]that is, for a period of fifteen calendar days, during which the deputy responsible for the infraction will not be able to receive any financial amount.”
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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 that has gone 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,” announces the former regional vice president, who downplays the importance of 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 the deputy Íñigo Henríquez de Luna admits in the meeting of spokespersons that he activated two different places as present, because he did not want the seat next to Monasterio to remain empty, which was not very aesthetic in front of the cameras. But he finally returned to his seat. The leader of Vox is the one who comes to admit having voted several times, although she does not express it clearly either.
“It's technology stuff,” Monasterio 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.
Nothing like this had ever 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 of his Government, Ayuso is committed to sanctioning Monasterio for his action. “If you are going on a road where you have to drive at 80 [kilómetros por hora], and they catch you at 140, Mrs. Monasterio, you will understand that you will have to be fined,” assures 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. The Assembly Board decides to launch the process that will likely end up sanctioning the spokesperson of the far-right party.
April 4. EL PAÍS accesses the content of the sanction proposal signed by Zarzalejo, which was confirmed this Wednesday by the Assembly Table, in which the PP has a majority.
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