That the errors in the votes of the Congress are usually habitual was more than patent when the deputy of the PP Alberto Casero he saved the labor reform of the coalition government by making a mistake with the telematic vote. He pressed the ‘yes’, instead of the ‘no’, and gave the Executive the last support it needed to approve the rule. But it is more difficult to find that 85 deputies are wrong. All at once. In block. This Thursday, it happened. 85 PP deputies they voted against the ‘start-ups’ law, despite being in favour. The reason, a simple failure of the deputy in charge of marking the direction of the vote to her fellow parliamentary group.
Shortly before 10 in the morning, the PP deputy Victor Piriz Maya went up to the congressional rostrum. His mission was to defend the position of his group against the start-up law. From the beginning, he made it clear. They were in favor of approving the rule. “After several years of waiting, today we finally pass in this House a necessary law“, he said before developing the benefits of it. And, in case there was any doubt, at the end of his speech he insisted that the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem “expects from us [los diputados] that this law comes out with the maximum consensus and my group will be there”.
That understanding of which he spoke was going to take place. Of 349 seats there was going to be 262 props to the norm. Such an agreement is rare in Spanish politics in recent years and the journalistic reports highlighted it. “Broad consensus,” read the headlines. But the surprise came after 7:15 p.m., when the PP -85 of its 88 deputies- they voted against. What had happened? What had blown up the agreement that just ten hours before had been staged in the gallery of the Lower House?
Impossible to amend
Any. Nothing happened. The PP was still in favor of the norm, but the conservative deputy Macarena Montesinos de Miguel, in charge of marking the direction of the vote to his bench, was confused. When the voting arrived, those responsible for each parliamentary group raised their hands and with their fingers indicated to their colleagues what they should vote for. At such times, the hemicycle usually turns into chaos in which the cries of “Yes!“, “noooo” Y “Abstention“. Montesinos de Miguel, instead of raising his index finger, the ‘yes’ sign, raised two fingers, the ‘no’ sign. He quickly realized his mistake and tried to correct it.
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“Yes! Excuse me. Yes! Yes! Yes!”, he shouted to his bench. But it was already late. The seconds that the deputies had to vote had been consumed and the 85 deputies of the PP had pressed the ‘no’. Only three deputies voted correctly. Mayan Piriz, after having defended the norm, I knew that they were in favor and so I vote. The popular deputies did the same Ricardo Tarno Y alice garcia who voted electronically. Let the record show that there was also a failure in the socialist group. AAlfonso Rodriguez Gomez de CelisFirst Vice President of Congress, also voted against.
The rule went ahead even so. 177 ‘yeses’, 88 ‘noes’ and 75 abstentions. But it became clear that any norm, no matter how important it is and how much consensus it achieves, is at the risk of a person raising one or two fingers.