Police reportedly sealed several areas of Spain's Congress after pepper spray spread from a bathroom into nearby facilities. The air in the affected area was reportedly impossible to breathe. A woman from a Mauritanian delegation visiting the chamber reportedly vomited and needed medical care.
Police reportedly cordoned off the bathroom and one Congress cafeteria after kitchen staff reported the smell. The gas was also said to have reached offices used by Vox. These cordons were part of a wider security response inside the building.
The episode followed a confrontation in the Pleno on 23 September 2026 involving Ana Vázquez of the PP. President Francina Armengol expelled Vázquez after she displayed a pepper spray canister, which Armengol treated as a weapon. Vázquez disagreed, saying she had checked that the container was empty. EFE and other Spanish media reported that Armengol cited Article 101 of the Congress rules and the chamber's weapons register when ordering Vázquez to leave.
The first alert about gas in the building reportedly came at 10.26am. Officers were said to have detected it in a bathroom along a corridor at 36 Carrera de San Jerónimo. The woman inside reportedly became ill from the strong smell and received medical care.
Police informed Armengol about the incident. She then warned the parliamentary groups that pepper spray could be dangerous for people with respiratory problems. Congress also offered medical help to the Mauritanian delegation if needed.
The dispute also became a political clash between the PP and Congress leadership. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo publicly criticised Armengol's decision. Vázquez said she was ready to repeat the gesture in Congress "as many times as necessary". She displayed the canister during a parliamentary discussion of security and migration that included conditions in Ceuta. Vázquez did not present the display as an accident.
The legal question is separate from the reported bathroom incident. Armengol's position was that displaying the canister broke parliamentary rules because it should be treated as a weapon. Vázquez argued that an empty container should not count as one. El Constitucional and other Spanish outlets reported that the wider rules distinguish between restricted sprays and authorised products sold under specific conditions.
Reports linked the chamber confrontation and Vázquez's removal from the sitting with claims that gas spread through Congress and led to the closure of several facilities.
