Ana Vázquez (PP) calls Armengol "asshole" after the pepper spray scandal and claims they recorded a "private" conversation

The PP deputy Ana Vázquez has once again lashed out at the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, after the latter forced her to leave the chamber for displaying a can of pepper spray. On this occasion, she did so during a conversation in Alicante, where she called the third authority of the State "gilipollas" (idiot/asshole) and assured that Armengol is "obsessed" with her.

The words of the Popular Group's Interior spokesperson were captured in a video recorded this Wednesday during a pre-campaign visit to the Carolinas neighborhood in Alicante. In the conversation, which also included the PP candidate for Alicante, Macarena Montesinos, Vázquez complained about the President of the Chamber's calls to order and maintained that Armengol spends "all the time" looking at her. The recording of the exchange has been disseminated on social media.

The parliamentarian even described what happened with the spray as "nonsense" and maintained that it had been "all invented to finish me off." She also linked it to her television appearances against the Government. "Since I give them hell on TV...", she stated to the people listening to her.

Vázquez defended this Thursday that it was a "private and relaxed" conversation and criticized that it was recorded. Asked specifically if she maintained the insult to Armengol, she avoided retracting and replied: "I refer to what I said".

The clash has a very specific precedent. Last September 23, Vázquez displayed a can of pepper spray during a question to the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, about the situation in Ceuta. Armengol asked her to leave the chamber, considering that she had shown a weapon in Congress.

The controversy continued outside the plenary session. Several offices in the Chamber had to be sealed due to the smell of gas, and several people needed attention. Although Vázquez had assured that the can was empty, the PP later admitted that a worker to whom the deputy had given it activated it in a bathroom, and some of its contents came out.

Vázquez lashes out against the recording

After the video from Alicante was disseminated, the deputy appeared before the media this Thursday in Valencia. Far from apologizing for the insult, she focused on whoever recorded her words. "It is regrettable to record a conversation in a private and relaxed setting," she maintained.

Vázquez explained that she was talking with PP candidates and a relative of a councilwoman while waiting for the mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala. According to her, at that moment she was commenting with her colleagues on Armengol's performance at the head of Congress and an incident that occurred in the Permanent Deputation.

The popular spokeswoman again accused the President of the Chamber of acting in favor of the Executive. "We have always considered her the 23rd minister of Sánchez's Government," she stated, before asserting that PP deputies suffer "harassment" in Congress.

The recording thus leaves a new personal disqualification from Vázquez against Armengol, after an incident in which it was the deputy herself who introduced and showed the spray in the chamber. This Thursday, when asked directly, she chose to maintain her criticism of the president and reproach that the conversation came to light.