The episode of the pepper spray that the PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez brought to the Plenary of Congress has generated notable uproar within the party. Popular leaders express in private their surprise and anger at how events unfolded and for having offered a "bargaining chip" to the PSOE of Pedro Sánchez. Several of them take for granted that the Government and the socialists will try to "stretch" this incident to "cover up their corruption" or their "disastrous" management of the Ceuta crisis.
"It has been a colossal mistake," several parliamentarians consulted by Europa Press agree in private. They also consider that the fact that the Police had to seal off several areas of Congress and there were a dozen affected by inhaling pepper spray "has proven the president of the Lower House, the socialist Francina Armengol, right," who had just expelled the deputy of the Popular Group from the hemicycle accusing her of "carrying a weapon."
Internal criticisms are especially focused on Ana Vázquez, whom they reproach for having sought a "performance" designed for social media. A veteran leader emphasizes the "aggravating" factor that she is a police officer and recalls her long career in Congress, with several legislatures behind her.
"The Popular Party should not try to emulate Minister Óscar Puente or Gabriel Rufián," states another PP official, insisting that it is a state party and that Parliament is the house of words. A senator emphasizes that "if you want to put on a show, you bring a photo. Parliament is a serious place for debate and we cannot trivialize it."
After Vázquez showed the pepper spray to reproach the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, that there is no normalcy in Ceuta because there are women and children who have to carry it, the consulted sources emphasize that "in Ceuta, we need everything but overacting."
"This does not benefit Ana Vázquez for the future," warns another deputy, who sees it possible that the Chamber ends up imposing a sanction both on the parliamentarian and on the worker who emptied the canister in one of the bathrooms of Congress. "She is going to be left with the stigma," adds a senator from the PP.
Concern about the political damage and the PSOE's narrative
Popular sources lament that a control session focused on Ceuta and corruption —with demands for explanations regarding what the party calls "sewers" of the PSOE in the "Leire plot," the jewels of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, or the inaction of the Government in the face of the massive entry of immigrants— ended up placing the PP at the center of the controversy and "diverting the focus" from the substantial. "In the end, we spent Thursday talking about our mistake," they admit.
"The worst is the lie," acknowledges a parliamentarian privately, who argues that the PP deputy did not tell the truth publicly when she claimed that the pepper spray was empty. "A little spray does not cause what has happened," protests another of those consulted.
In the PP, they take for granted that the PSOE is going to "try to stretch" this issue in the Congress Table to avoid talking about its "disastrous" management in the Ceuta crisis or to "cover up its corruption," according to sources from the party.
Some of these sources recommend that Ana Vázquez backtrack to close the controversy as soon as possible. In their opinion, "she could apologize and make it clear that the intention was good, that what she was seeking was to denounce the situation that Ceuta is experiencing."
However, other leaders maintain the opposite stance and bet on trying to put the issue to rest by reducing their media presence. "You never back down," asserts one of them, who clarifies right after that "that does not mean that the PP has been right about this."
Silence of Feijóo and support of Gamarra
From the national leadership of the PP, they avoided commenting on Thursday about the controversy generated by the pepper spray. The party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo —who on Wednesday did not join the applause that the rest of the deputies of the Popular Group dedicated to Vázquez when she left the hemicycle— focused his speech in Guadalajara on presenting an emergency plan to improve the purchasing power of families and did not accept questions from the journalists present.
Who did come out in defense of Ana Vázquez was the deputy secretary of Institutional Regeneration of the PP, Cuca Gamarra. When asked about this issue on RNE, she pointed out that Vázquez's intention was to highlight the "objective insecurity" experienced in Ceuta. Right after, she accused the Government of attacking the deputy because it does not want to talk about Ceuta and intends to "cover up" the situation of the autonomous city. "It's like looking at the finger and covering the moon," she concluded.