Police reportedly sealed several areas of Spain's Congress after pepper spray was detected in a bathroom. Independent reporting more clearly confirms the parliamentary dispute over the spray than the wider claim that gas spread through the building.
A pepper spray incident reportedly led police to seal several areas of Spain's Congress after gas spread from a bathroom into nearby facilities. The affected area was reportedly impossible to breathe in. A woman also reportedly needed medical care after vomiting. She was part of a Mauritanian delegation visiting the chamber. Independent reporting available for this article has not reliably confirmed that parts of the building were closed because gas spread from the bathroom.
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. The response turned the incident into a wider reported security operation inside the building. Details of that operation still need further verification.
The order for Ana Vázquez to leave the chamber was not a loss of her parliamentary mandate. It was a direction from the presiding officer to leave that sitting of Congress.
The episode followed a confrontation in the Pleno on 23 September 2026 involving Ana Vázquez of the PP. President Francina Armengol expelled the deputy after Vázquez displayed a pepper spray canister and treated it as a weapon. Vázquez rejected that view. She said she had checked that the container was empty. Reports from EFE and other Spanish media said 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 because of the strong smell and was treated by medical staff. The sources available for this article have not independently confirmed these details.
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 it was needed.
The legal dispute concerns Spain’s Weapons Regulation. Self-defence sprays are subject to restrictions, while an exception applies to models authorised by the Ministry of Health when the conditions for sale to adults are met.
The dispute also became a political fight between the PP and the leadership of Congress. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticised Armengol's decision in public. 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. It was not presented 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.
The confirmed part of the episode is the confrontation in the Pleno and Vázquez's removal from the sitting. Claims that gas spread through Congress and led to the closure of several facilities still need more independent confirmation.
