Simon Hunter
A LAWMAKER from the conservative Popular Party has been accused by his Socialist colleagues of making a death threat against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a session in the Congress of Deputies today.
Politician Jose Ignacio Echaniz is alleged to have said ‘you are dead’ and gestured with his thumb facing downward after a question had been put to Sanchez by another deputy.
His actions were flagged by Jose Zaragoza, the deputy spokesperson for the Socialist Party (PSOE) in Congress.
According to Spanish news agency Europa Press, Zaragoza said to reporters after the session that it was ‘shameful that in this chamber, and from the PP’s benches, this kind of threat is aimed at the prime minister of the government.’
A deputy from the Catalan branch of the Socialist Party, Arnau Ramirez, pointed out that this was not the first time that Echaniz had made such comments and that the PP deputy is ‘famous for his verbal incontinence’.
Insults and moments of high tension have been common in the Congress of Deputies in recent years, in particular since the arrival of far-right Vox, which, after the PSOE and the PP, is the third-largest group in the chamber.
A Vox deputy recently was stopped from speaking in Congress after calling the government ‘filoterroristas’, meaning they are sympathetic to terrorists.
On the left, meanwhile, Equality Minister Irene Montero caused outrage in Congress recently when she accused the PP of promoting ‘rape culture’.
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