The far-right Vox deputy José María Sánchez García has failed in his attempt to appeal before the Supreme Court the expulsion he suffered in Congress last April. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber has dismissed his appeal for lack of jurisdiction and has imposed the costs of the procedure, with a limit of 500 euros. Sánchez is a judge on leave of absence.
The incident occurred on April 14 during a debate on the destruction of books and the persecution of cultural professionals during Francoism. Sánchez asked to speak from his seat when he did not have the floor because, he argued, a deputy from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) had insulted him. Afterwards, he went up to the area reserved for the Presidency, addressed a lawyer of the Chamber and confronted the first vice-president, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, who was presiding over the session.
Expulsaron del recinto al diputado de Vox, José María Sánchez, después de enfrentarse con el vicepresidente primero de la Cámara, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Célis, quien en ese momento estaba a cargo de la sesión.
— El Destape (@eldestapeweb) April 14, 2026
El episodio ocurrió durante el debate de un proyecto impulsado… pic.twitter.com/R8RAJbObRS
The Congress Bureau put the sequence in writing. The Presidency called Sánchez to order three times and warned him, after the second, that a new admonition would mean his expulsion. The deputy went up again while another parliamentarian began to speak and the plenary session had to be interrupted. The expulsion prevented him from remaining in the chamber and voting during the rest of that session.
The Supreme Court does not rule on the expulsion
Sánchez took the case to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, but that jurisdiction can only review certain agreements of the Congress on personnel, administration or assets. The State Attorney's Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office had already warned that the appeal had been filed before a chamber without jurisdiction to resolve it.
The magistrates explain that Sánchez was expelled for his conduct as a deputy during a plenary session, a matter subject to parliamentary law. For this reason, they dismiss the appeal without examining whether the expulsion was justified. The economic consequence comes from the lawsuit opened by the parliamentarian himself: he must bear the costs, up to a maximum of 500 euros set by the Chamber.
After the altercation, the Congress Bureau condemned Sánchez's actions and asked to study a more effective disciplinary response. The PSOE registered in May a proposal to reform the Regulations that contemplates fines of up to 1,000 euros for expulsions agreed after three calls to order. The up to 500 euros that the Vox deputy now faces correspond exclusively to the costs of his appeal before the Supreme Court.
