The deputy of Más Madrid, Pablo Padilla, faces a 22-day salary suspension for simulating a shooting while the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, spoke at the plenary session of the Assembly on May 23 .
This appears in the sanction proposal prepared by the instructor of the process opened by the Assembly, Mercedes Zarzalejo (PP), to which Europa Press had access, and in which this corrective measure is proposed, greater than that imposed. the spokesperson for Vox, Rocío Monasterio, for having voted twice in plenary session -15 days without pay-.
The Assembly opened this sanction process on May 31 after Vox presented a brief alluding to the video that went viral on the networks in which Padilla’s gesture was seen. The PP accused him of “threatening” Ayuso, while he defended himself by assuring that he represented “Israeli snipers killing 14,000 children”. The Minister of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García Martín, directly stated that he could not “continue another minute” as a parliamentarian.
Zarzalejo supports his proposal on several points. On the one hand, the violation of the “respect due to the discipline and order of the House” by Padilla, the violation of the order and the proper conduct of the debates in Parliament and the “conscious and intentional” modification of the course of the plenary.
He supports the sanction provided for in article 33.3 of the Regulations of the Madrid Assembly, considering that he has committed an attack on the dignity of the Chamber and the discipline of the deputies.
Zarzalejo does not appreciate that this is “repeated” behavior because there is no case for which he would have been sanctioned but, unlike the case of Monasterio, he points out that Padilla tends to interrupt the debate by causing “damage to normal development.” sessions.” plenary sessions.
It will now be the Bureau of the Assembly which will have to approve or not this proposal, probably during its meeting on Friday. In the event of a green light, Padilla could request a review of the decision which would paralyze the application of the sanction for 15 days.
“Disproportionate” sanction
From Más Madrid they accused the sanction “disproportionate”, assuring that “the disorder” mentioned by the instructor in the text did not occur and that in addition “nothing appears in the log of the session” until a “tweet five hours later.”
“None of those who saw it said anything, and what’s more, they only made a statement after four months and after being asked,” criticizes the group, which assured that all those consulted were members of PP and Vox and that none of them, More Madrid or PSOE – the groups facing Padilla are those of the right-wing parties.
They also highlighted the fact that the sanctions are not limited to the “double voting fraud” of Monasterio and described the work of Mercedes Zarzalejo as a procedure “without guarantees”, which they accused of seeking to sanction a deputy not not for his gesture but for his gesture. for “his opposition work”. “This is a collective punishment against Más Madrid for strengthening the opposition to Ayuso,” explained party sources who confirmed that they would present allegations.
The investigation
The PP deputy in charge of the investigation describes how Padilla, from her seat, “made a series of gestures, placing her hands on top of each other, extending her arms and ‘pointing’ with her index and middle fingers – with which she seems to represent a gun “–, simulating the direction and shooting on the bench in which the Hon. Madam President and the members of the Governing Council”, then made a “sudden movement of the head” with which he seemed to represent “someone who is killed by the impact of a bullet”.
The instructor also states that the “prelude” to the fact for which Padilla was investigated was Ayuso’s speech in which he said: “and you, who want to destroy the State of Israel, talk to me about coexistence. Yesterday his vice-president said: “From the river to the sea”, which is a criminal message, contemptuous of the Jewish community living in Madrid.
The testimony of “certain deputies” who are “in front of the seat occupied by the accused deputy” also stands out. They agree on three aspects: that they observed the gestures, that the facts correspond to the images that have gone viral on the networks and. in the media and that the shot “was directed towards the members of the Governing Council and, more precisely, towards the president of the Community of Madrid”.
The instructor assures that it is “proven” that what happened was not an event “unnoticed within the Chamber as Padilla claims” but rather a “notorious entity during this plenary session” and with “repercussions through the media”.
He also rejects one of the arguments put forward at the time by Más Madrid, according to which the use of cell phones to record inside the room – the source of the evidence that triggers the process – would go to the against “respect for order in the parliamentary enclosure and collaboration”. in the smooth running of the debates.
In fact, he responds by assuring that the testimonies collected indicate that it is “common and repeated” that it is Padilla himself who makes “similar gestures, comments or actions” during previous sessions of the Plenary that “affect the normal development” of the same – the fact is indicated in the text that the President of the Assembly, Enrique Ossorio, attracted the attention of the deputy before the gesture.
“The events that occurred during the plenary session of May 23, 2024 do not seem isolated, but are part of Ilmo’s usual behavior. Mr. Deputy Defendant,” Zarzalejo abandons.
