The Popular Party senator Javier Arenas Bocanegra has starred this Tuesday in an unusual scene in the Senate when he was caught smoking a vape during a session of control to the Government, just while the Minister of Health, Monica Garcia, was speaking.
The incident, captured by the cameras of the Upper House, occurred while Garcia was answering questions from his parliamentary group. Arenas, sitting just behind the minister, took out his electronic cigarette and took a puff, without realizing that his gesture was recorded on the screens of the hemicycle.“Mr. Arenas, are you with an electronic cigarette behind my back in the Senate while I’m speaking?” the minister later ironized in a post on the social network BlueSky.
A gesture that did not go unnoticed
While the Health Minister was speaking before the plenary, the Senate cameras captured how Arenas inhaled his vape and quickly put it in his pocket after receiving a warning gesture from his colleague, the Balearic senator María Salom Coll.
The veteran politician, aware that the screens were showing his live image, looked up at the monitors in the chamber before discreetly putting the device in his jacket.
The scene went viral on social networks, not only because of the action itself, but also because the senator was smoking behind the minister responsible for promoting a reform of the anti-smoking law that seeks to tighten restrictions on the use of electronic cigarettes and vapes.
Arenas’ answer: “No, no, no”.
After the session, reporters asked Arenas about the incident in the Senate corridors. “No, no, no, no,” he replied repeatedly when asked if he had smoked.
Upon being informed that the images clearly showed the moment he used the vape, the senator assured that he was going to review the recordings. Later, in an informal conversation, he denied actually smoking and claimed that he only put the device to his mouth “as if it were a pen.”
Mónica García: “It is an unusual gesture”.
The Minister of Health reacted with astonishment when she learned of the episode. “I find it absolutely unusual that the number two of the PP in the Senate was smoking from his vaper while I was answering a question from his parliamentary group,” she told the media.
In a more ironic tone, he added: “It is a bad gesture to the Minister of Health. I forgive her, but she should heed the advice of her PP colleague to stop. She can consult with her primary care physician. “
Mr. Arenas, are you with an electronic cigarette behind my back in the Senate while I am speaking?
It is a bad gesture to the Minister of Health. I forgive her, but heed her PP colleague’s advice to stop. You can consult your primary care physician.
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– Mónica García(@monicagarciag.bsky.social) November 4, 2025, 14:23
The comment, with a humorous but critical touch, referred both to the gesture of his party colleague and to the Ministry of Health’s own campaign against tobacco and vapers, whose legal reform is pending to come into force.
The new anti-smoking law and vapers
The incident takes place in the middle of the anti-smoking law reform process, promoted by the Ministry of Health, which will expand smoke-free zones and bring tobacco restrictions to the same level as electronic vaping devices.
Although the regulation has already been approved by the Council of Ministers, it has not yet entered into force, so technically the use of the Arenas vape is not explicitly contemplated in the current Senate rules.
However, Minister Garcia has argued that vapers should be regulated in the same way as traditional cigarettes, as their consumption also has health risks and can foster nicotine addiction.
Is smoking prohibited in the Senate?
The controversy has reopened the debate on the rules of conduct within public institutions. Since October 1, 2004, the representatives of the Senate have been forbidden to smoke tobacco in their offices, following the approval of an initiative of the now defunct Convergència i Unió (CiU) that extended to the Senate the same prohibition that had already been in force in the Congress of Deputies since June of that year.
What is not so clear is whether this regulation also applies to electronic cigarettes or vapers, as the Senate Bureau has never issued a formal pronouncement on the matter.
