Madrid judge Pedro Merchante opened preliminary proceedings on a complaint from three people for an alleged offence of causing injuries, and asked for medical reports before deciding on a formal investigation.
Legal sources say no charge has been brought against Ana Vázquez or anyone else, and no one has yet been called to testify.
The Mesa opened a file on 29 September seeking a one-week suspension of employment and salary, but the early dissolution of Congress, with elections called for 29 November, ended the process while the Mesa of the Permanent Deputation issued a reprimand.
A Madrid judge, Pedro Merchante, who holds post number 6 in the instruction section of the Madrid court of first instance, has opened preliminary proceedings after a complaint from three people affected by an incident in the Congress of Deputies. Legal sources said the complaint concerns an alleged offence of causing injuries and is directed at Ana Vázquez, a People's Party (PP) deputy. Before deciding whether to open a formal investigation, the judge has asked the complainants to supply medical reports documenting their injuries. According to legal sources, no charge has been brought against Vázquez or anyone else, and no one has yet been called to testify. El Mundo reported that the complainants are workers of the Socialist party (PSOE).
On 23 September, during a plenary control session in which deputies question the government, Vázquez displayed a pepper spray canister while putting a question to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska about Ceuta. She framed the canister as a symbol of the restrictions faced by women in the city.
“This is the symbol of the lack of freedoms that Ceuta women suffer.”
Congress president Francina Armengol asked her to leave the chamber because weapons cannot be displayed there, and Vázquez insisted the canister had been empty. The PP defended her and said she wanted to show the reality that women and girls in Ceuta live. Later the spray was released in a bathroom, where a male party worker accidentally pressed the nozzle, and a former PP spokesperson in Congress admitted that the handling was an error. The gas spread through the ventilation system, several areas of the building were sealed, and police cordoned off zones. La Vanguardia reported that a female visitor from a Mauritanian parliamentary delegation vomited and received medical assistance, while about a dozen others were examined.
The Mesa of Congress opened a sanction file against Vázquez on 29 September, backed by the PSOE and Sumar majority in the governing body. The proposal was a one-week suspension of her employment and salary. General elections were then called for 29 November, and Congress was dissolved early. The plenary vote needed to approve the sanction could no longer take place, so the procedure lapsed. Vázquez remains a member of the Permanent Deputation.
The Mesa of the Permanent Deputation nonetheless reprimanded her, describing the incident as being of undoubted gravity. It stressed that bringing weapons into the chamber is completely and unconditionally banned by the rules, and that no other deputy had crossed that line in this constitutional period.
“Those responsible must not confuse the impossibility of imposing a sanction because of the early dissolution of Congress with a condoning of their conduct.”
The Mesa said Vázquez is politically responsible for a serious breach of the rules. It cited dozens of people affected, one of them on sick leave, the evacuation of three separate buildings and considerable economic damage.
The judge will now wait for the complainants to provide their medical reports. Sources said that once those are filed, he could request a forensic assessment, and that the proceedings remain at a very early stage. The case is separate from the parliamentary file, which ended with the dissolution of the chamber.
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A Madrid court has opened preliminary proceedings over alleged injuries from the pepper spray that PP deputy Ana Vázquez displayed in Congress on 23 September. The judge has asked the complainants to provide medical reports before deciding whether to open a formal investigation.
AI text based on reports by EL MUNDO, europa press, El Confidencial and other publishers. Changed .