Overview
- Footage from the upper chamber around 5:30 p.m. showed Javier Arenas bringing an electronic cigarette to his mouth behind Health Minister Mónica García during a control session.
- Mónica García posted the clip on X and called the scene “absolutely unusual,” criticizing the gesture as she was replying to a question from PP senator Enrique Ruiz Escudero.
- Arenas told reporters he was not smoking, acknowledged he had a vaper, said he habitually puts it to his mouth like a pen, and added he would review the images.
- A nearby colleague, PP senator María Salom, gestured to warn him they were on camera, after which he pocketed the device and covered his mouth, according to multiple reports.
- Later on X, García said vapes are not permitted in Parliament and wrote that the government is expanding regulation to align them with tobacco and add smoke‑free spaces; no disciplinary action has been reported.