Interesting times in Spanish Parliament

EVEN though Patxi Lopez took the chair as the new Speaker along with the deputy speakers and secretaries which allowed the Spanish parliament to formally sit, there is still no coming together of the political parties, so Mariano Rajoy will have to proceed as the leader of the largest party but without an overall majority.

350 new MPs were sworn in as quickly as possible but each of the 69 new Podemos MPs decided to make a speech through their revolutionary fervour.

To add to the ‘fun’ Podemos MP Carolina Bescansa brought her son Diego into the chamber and proceeded to breast feed him in front of delegates and the press, which surprisingly brought a great deal of criticism from feminists, as well as female journalists and politicians, as it was thought that her action was for show, rather than a genuine effort to break down barriers regarding breast feeding in public.

They argue that as the child is so very young, the chamber was not the proper place to bring him especially as there is a free nursery service within the building, and that she could afford to leave him at home with her husband, or pay for a nanny although the first argument is surely more convincing than the latter two.

There was also a bit of media scrum after she requested that newspapers should pixilate his face when publishing images, which some complied with and others around the world did not.