The Congress Council approved this Tuesday, by a majority of five votes of the members of the progressive bloc against four of the PP, the opening of a sanctions file against the ultra agitator Bertrand Ndongo, accredited for years in Congress by the Periodista Digital site and who has been involved in various confrontations with parliamentarians from various groups and representatives of the media. The procedure was launched after the complaint of Sumar’s spokesperson, Verónica Barbero, that the ultras boycotted during several press conferences. The Commission also opened a procedure regarding another complaint, in this case that of the Association of Parliamentary Journalists (APP), against the pseudo-journalist Vito Quiles for having recorded the President of the Government inside the Cortes with his mobile phone and without authorization.
Last summer, Congress approved, with the opposition of the PP and Vox, a reform of the Regulations of the Lower House which provides for sanctioning and even withdrawing the accreditation of professionals who engage in certain inappropriate behaviors that are not authorized inside the Cortes. On November 25, ultra activist Bertrand Ndongo appeared in the Congress press room and, immediately after finishing his first intervention, Sumar’s spokesperson, Verónica Martínez Barbero, began asking questions without the party’s press chief having given her the floor, in a loud and aggressive tone, thus preventing the journalist who had the turn at that time from being heard.
A very similar scene with the same protagonists occurred with Ndongo against Sumar’s spokesperson on May 13, in which Sumar emphasizes that the activist is a repeat offender and that his actions obey a strategy that he never followed in front of the spokespersons of PP and Vox. Already in May, the other journalists, representatives of practically all the media accredited to the Congress, found themselves without the opportunity to ask questions and left the room. Then, gathered in an assembly and with the support of the Association of Parliamentary Journalists, they published a statement of condemnation in which they again rejected “once again, forcefully, the behavior of certain people accredited to Congress”, in reference to incidents of this type that have been occurring and multiplying for months at the seat of Parliament.
This complaint from Sumar and the APP is the one that the Congress Council dealt with this Tuesday and which led to the opening of a sanction file. The reform of the regulations, which was ratified in July by the plenary session of the Chamber by 177 votes in favor, against 170 for PP and Vox against, establishes three categories of infractions – minor, serious and very serious – with their corresponding sanctions, which range from a simple warning and even suspension of the title for ten days, up to its definitive revocation.
That same Tuesday, an Advisory Council was also created in Congress, provided for in this reform of the Rules of the House and composed of members of the Council and two from the Association of Parliamentary Journalists, in this case only as listeners who report the problems they have witnessed. This Council decided to transfer to the Table another possible sanctions file, in this case against the ultra activist Vito Quiles. The APP reported on December 1 that on November 20, Quiles, also accredited to Congress, “made recordings using a cell phone in the corridor attached to the Constitutional Chamber of the House, without any authorization from the Directorate of Communication nor valid accreditation for such activity in accordance with current parliamentary regulations.”
The APP complaint specifies that Quiles stood that day at the entrance to an event at the Constitutional Chamber attended by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with a corridor full of journalists covering the event and a television camera recording for all media as on all similar occasions, since space is limited and journalists numerous. The text provided by the APP states that “at the time when the President of the Government was addressing the room, Quiles began to record him asking him questions and that he was warned by the staff of the Directorate of Communication” and that he ignored this warning and continued recording. He later posted this material on his X account, although he later deleted it.
About The Author
