Vox breaks a minute of silence for Gaza by banging on its seat.

PalmTwo Vox MPs broke the impromptu minute of silence for Gaza called by Socialist MP Malena Riudavets on Tuesday. After the PP and the PSIB (Socialist Workers' Party) failed to agree on a consensual text (the PP did not accept the term "genocide" in the text), Riudavets asked to speak. Taking advantage of her allotted minute to speak, she called for silence for the victims. This was not possible. The complete silence in the chamber was interrupted by knocks on the seats of Sergio Rodríguez and María José Verdú, MPs from Santiago Abascal's party.

The PP and the PSIB (Socialist Workers' Party) had registered (in that order) two petitions requesting that the groups observe the minute of silence outside the Parliament, so the consensus of the Chamber is necessary. But the symbolic action fell through due to the impossibility of agreeing on a joint text. The Popular Party (PP) has refused to accept that Israel's attacks on the Palestinian people constitute genocide, as the Socialists demand. PSIB spokesperson Iago Negueruela warned yesterday that if the PP did not yield on this point, the tribute would not take place. "We do not compromise with human rights," he said at a press conference. When Riudavets observed the minute of silence, the left-wing deputies stood, while the PP, despite respecting it, did not.

The PSIB is pressuring Marga Prohens's PP following statements made by several PP members in recent days, who have acknowledged that genocide is being committed in Gaza or have strongly condemned Israel's actions. Among them are the president of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juan Manuel Moreno; the president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón; the president of the Galician Regional Government, Alfonso Rueda; and the president of Extremadura, María Guardiola. On the other hand, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, rejected the use of the term "genocide." Ayuso has even spoken of speeches that "fuel antisemitism."

The PP spokesperson in the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, criticized the PSIB for encouraging "semantic debate" in "a war with more than 60,000 victims." "The important thing is to stop this war, to free the hostages, and to stop the dead," she stated, insisting that the issue of genocide is "a legal matter that does not concern political parties but international organizations and courts." The PP text called for an end to the war, the opening of humanitarian corridors in the Strip, the release of the hostages, and solidarity with the victims, including those of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Vox spokesperson Manuela Cañadas asserted that there is a "conflict" between Israel and Palestine and called on the PSIB to demand that Hamas "release the hostages." She also denounced the failure to take into account the "genocide of Christians," which, according to Cañadas, is taking place "in Africa."

Apesteguía: "We should all reconsider"

The MÁS spokesperson for Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, argued that "the death of an innocent person must always be condemned." "It cannot be downplayed that a state is carrying out genocide," he said. For the eco-sovereignist, the failure to find consensus in an institutional text condemning these acts is "a failure of politics." "Terrorism is not acceptable, war is not an acceptable form of relationship," he considered. In light of the bickering between the parties, he called for a lower tone to reject the death of innocent people: "We should all reconsider."