Irene Montero 'gifts' knee pads to Abascal on La Revuelta, meant for Netanyahu

Irene Montero handed Santiago Abascal a pair of knee pads during his appearance on La Revuelta, a gesture mocking the subservience she attributes to the Vox leader before Netanyahu and Trump.

The scene has substance. **Irene Montero** appeared on the show **La Revuelta** and brought along an unusual object: knee pads. She handed them to **Santiago Abascal** with an explanation that turned the gift into a political message. The intended recipient, she said, was not just the Vox leader.

## A gift with recipients abroad

Montero presented the knee pads as useful for the tasks that, in her view, Abascal performs alongside **Netanyahu** and **Trump**. The joke works by accumulation: the object suggests kneeling, and the proper names place that gesture in two specific capitals, Jerusalem and Washington. It is not a generic criticism. It is an accusation with names attached.

Context matters. Abascal has publicly defended the Israeli government's line and maintains an affinity with Trumpism. Montero, former Minister of Equality and leader of Podemos, turns that closeness into the butt of the joke. Spanish politics is also played out through these TV studio gestures.

## Politics as television spectacle

La Revuelta has become a venue where politicians seek something different from a rally: a young audience and virality. The format allows these show-stopping moments that then circulate on social media. A pair of knee pads costs little and makes a lot of noise. The attention economy rules.

That is the calculation. A hardware store item becomes a headline, a meme and a campaign talking point. Montero does not need a twenty-minute speech when she has an accessory and two proper names. Spanish politics has long understood that the TV studio is a shop window, and the shop window pays for itself.

## What Vox has at stake in this scene

For Abascal, the gift is a trap. Accepting it means accepting the frame his adversary imposes on him. Refusing it, on camera, looks bad. The scene leaves an image that is hard to neutralize: the Vox leader holding knee pads in his hands with two foreign leaders in the crosshairs.

None of this is new in Spanish politics, where the symbolic object sometimes replaces the policy platform. But it is worth keeping the essential point in view: this is political criticism, not verified information about anyone's conduct. The knee pads are a joke with intent.