During the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, in addition to hearing interventions in the different autonomous languages of Spain, sign language was also used. When the socialist deputy Jose Zaragoza He has cast his affirmative vote to the President of the Government with a loud ‘Yes’ and has accompanied his statement with a hand gesture with the same meaning in sign language.
Zaragoza’s gesture responded to a protest intention to give visibility to a language that people with disabilities use to communicate. Although it is common to see the interventions of the plenary sessions of Congress translated into sign language on television broadcasts, this was the first time that a deputy has used this language in the voting of an investiture session.
The movement of his hands that Zaragoza made when he pronounced his vote has caused some surprise in some deputies, who have not been able to correctly interpret what the gesture was due to. The EH Bildu deputyOskar Matute He has even joked with his seatmate Bel Pozueta mockingly imitating the movement of the fingers that Zaragoza had made.
When Matute found out that what Zaragoza had done was use sign language, he apologized through the social network X. “You will never go to bed without knowing one more thing. I didn’t know the meaning in sign language of a gesture that I found funny when I saw it. Despite this, my apologies and those of Bel, to anyone who may have felt offended. Nothing could be further from our intention,” wrote the Bildu leader.