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 José Zaragoza cast his affirmative vote to the President of the Government with a loud ‘Yes’, he accompanied his statement with a hand gesture of identical 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 deputy BilduÓskar Matute has even joked with his fellow member Bel Pozueta by 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 When I saw it I found it funny. Despite this, my apologies and those of Bel, to anyone who may have felt offended. Nothing could be further from our intention,” the Bildu leader wrote.