The instructor of the 'Monastery case' proposes sanctioning the Vox leader with 15 days of salary for voting twice in the same initiative

Mercedes Zarzalejo, the instructor of the file opened against Rocío Monasterio for having voted twice in the same initiative in the February 1 plenary session of the Madrid Assembly, has proposed that the Vox leader be sanctioned with 15 days of salary, according to documentation to which EL PAÍS has accessed. 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 monthly), the instructor's proposal advocates applying the principle of proportionality, since her vote did not affect the result of the initiative submitted for debate (the amendment to the entirety presented by Más Madrid against the Government's circular economy law). The final resolution of the sanction now depends on the Board, a body in which the PP enjoys an absolute majority, and which will foreseeably discuss the matter this Friday after seeing how the instructor certified that there was a “double vote.” If the Board accepts the instructor's approach, Monasterio will appeal, so the sanction will be suspended, and will ask for the resignation of the president of the Chamber, Enrique Ossorio, “for discriminatory and arbitrary treatment,” since he considers that there are precedents for double vote in which there was no punishment.

“It is considered that [Monasterio] “She is 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 had not yet been appointed. his substitute. “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.”

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. Two months later, all those involved hope that this Friday's Board will put an end to the controversy, although Monasterio will have the right to request reconsideration of the decision if he does not agree with it.

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