The seven minutes of uninterrupted applause that deputies and senators gave the Pope on Monday in Congress constitute the longest ovation remembered in recent years for a guest in the Lower House, ahead of those received at the time by King Felipe VI and his daughter, Princess Leonor.
After the Pope concluded his speech in the hemicycle, the first speech by a Pontiff before the Courts, the parliamentarians gathered in the Plenary Hall rose from their seats and began to applaud, remaining standing for those seven minutes, while several "Long live the Pope" were even heard.
The duration of this recognition is practically double the slightly more than three minutes of applause that Princess Leonor garnered the day she swore the Constitution upon reaching adulthood, and also exceeds the almost two minutes of ovation that were paid to Felipe VI during his proclamation as King.
Among the different heads of state who have spoken in the hemicycle of Congress, the case of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also stands out, who, both in his videoconference appearance and in his in-person visit, was received with warm applause from their lordships, as a sign of support for the Ukrainian people in the face of the Russian invasion.