De Celis alleges that the term "filoetarra" does not exist because ETA disappeared and blames VOX for "false victimhood"

It indicates that the Presidency of Congress seeks to "prevent" parties from intentionally using words to offend others

MADRID, 2 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The first vice president of Congress and socialist deputy, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, assured this Friday that the term "filoetarra" used by Vox this week against EH Bildu does not exist because ETA "disappeared" in 2011, while blaming the party of Santiago Abascal to promote a "false victimhood", since it is not the first time that the floor has been removed in the Lower House.

"From a strictly legal term, filoetarra does not exist," said Gómez de Celis, who pointed out that "it has been 11 years" since the terrorist group "has not existed, luckily, thanks to all the Spaniards, who defeated it."

In statements to Cope, collected by Europa Press, he has proclaimed that any party that was pro-member "could not be in Congress, because the party law approved by the PP would prohibit it."

Having said this, Gómez de Celis has declared that ETA only exists "in the imagination of those who want to permanently cover up" the achievements of the Pedro Sánchez government, such as the drop in unemployment or the fact that Spain has one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe.

He has reiterated several times that ETA has already disappeared and, when asked by Bildu, he added that each party has its friends, but that he neither knows nor wants to know those of the abertzale formation, since he is "at the antipodes" of that world.

For Gómez de Celis, the anger experienced in Congress in recent weeks responds to a "premeditated dynamic" of the opposition in order not to talk about the positive measures of the Executive.

"I think it is a false victimization of Vox, it is not the first time, far from it, that a deputy has been taken away from the floor and it is the first time that a Vox deputy has been taken away," he assured, adding that it has already been made with independentista parliamentarians.

Gómez de Celis has shown his "discomfort" for the "so harsh" environment that has occurred in Congress. And he has affirmed that the attitude of the Abascal formation is not something specific, but a "sequence of events" from "the beginning", since in 2019 the president of the Chamber, Meritxell Batet, "had to expel" the former deputy Macarena Olona after calling her to order three times.

"All the Vox deputies, one after the other, have been making a permanent provocation in their interventions," he said.

Questioned about the term filoetarra and about what he considers inappropriate in it, the vice president said that it is not about the expression itself and recalled that the 'popular' Ana Pastor, when she presided over Congress, already corrected the use of the word "coup plotters" to understand that it was not something "logical" in a parliamentary debate.

"The question is another, it is not the term itself," the deputy reaffirmed, taking refuge in the fact that a 2011 Constitutional Court ruling states that "expressions that, regardless of whether they are true or not, are offensive, are prohibited, disgraceful and impertinent".

And he explained that whoever acts as president of the Chamber what he wants is to "prevent" any parliamentary group from using a term with the express intention of offending another and the recipient may feel offended.

According to Gómez de Celis, from the Presidency of Congress it is difficult to stop what the parties want to happen. "It seems that they do not want to reduce the tension and I think it is a rather sad situation", he concluded, trusting that in the coming days, with the anniversary of the Constitution, the spirit of unity will recover.