Not all of them. Some Germans abstained and the Portuguese completely deviated from the script and voted in favour of recognising Edmundo Gonzalez as the “legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela” and Maria Corina Machado as “leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela.”
It is often said that there are two things that everyone loves: trains and Portugal. Yesterday reinforces the second preference. Oscar Bridge the first one cools down.
The liberals of Renew and the Socialists & Democrats decided today not to vote for the European Parliament resolution that condemns electoral fraud in Venezuela and recognizes Edmundo González as president-elect.
Instead, they condemned the EPP (centre-right) for… pic.twitter.com/NyBvHz4O5s
– Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) September 19, 2024
The Dictator Wall celebrated the result of the vote by releasing scenes in which the regime coerced Edmundo Gonzalez so that he signs a paper in exchange, we suppose, for his life.
That the chosen setting was the residence of the Spanish ambassador, the alleged participation of a collaborator of Shoemakerthat Albares insists on not calling a dictatorship a dictatorship or the embarrassing role of the former president in general are difficult elements to put together in a puzzle that does not show a certain collaboration between sanchismo and madurismo.
Traditionally, it has been Spain that has led Europe’s relations with Latin America and I suppose that is what has caused the absurdity of the European socialists aligning with Sánchez’s interests.
Since its president is the Spaniard Iratxe Garcia Perezfamous for another role (she went from the scourge of separatism to the defender of amnesty via Carles Puigdemont), that’s not very strange either.
What really bothers me are the “liberals”. Renew Europe, the group that Ciudadanos was part of, was absent from the vote.
Because?
Well, because they are very concerned about the polarization and the rise of the extreme right, which “does not have the interests of the Venezuelan opposition in mind” and to which they have decided to put a sanitary cordon.
They are referring to Patriots for Europe, the group founded by the Fidesz party of Viktor Orbanwhich Vox joined for reasons that are difficult to understand.
But does what the initiative says seem good or bad for Renew?
Because voting on proposals based on who proposes them and not on their content does not seem particularly liberal or enlightened, and would lead to not supporting, for example, patriotic initiatives against slavery or cannibalism.
In fact, it is this approach that leads to continuing to avoid confronting the cultural problems of immigration because it is understood that only illusions can come from the racist extreme right.
The extreme right’s attempt to flee is also melancholic, since it has led Renew towards the extreme left, some of whose members (there are some Irene Montero And Isa Serra), of course, they are not thinking of the interests of the Venezuelan opposition, but rather of those of the dictator.
This doesn’t seem to worry them, because the traditional problem of European liberals is that they have to continually apologize for not being left-wing. This also happened to us at Ciudadanos.
NO to alliances with the extreme right!
HAS @RenewEuropewe decided to withdraw and raise our voting cards so as not to participate in the vote on a resolution @EPPGroup co-signed with the group @PatriotsEP Orbán and Vlaams Belang.
Democrats cannot give in. pic.twitter.com/KjCIGZqBv3
– Sophie Wilmès (@Sophie_Wilmes) September 19, 2024
It must also be said that the liberals, very concerned about polarization, omitted that the proposal came from the Popular Group, and that the Patriots joined it later.
With its lack of primacy, what Renew has done is precisely to symbolically condemn the most important group in the European Parliament (and with it, its proposal) to the far-right pole of the House.
He said Heidegger This nothingness swims. “And it depolarizes by polarizing,” Renew seems to think.
There is one last picturesque aspect to the matter. After the disappearance of Ciudadanos, there is only one Spanish party left represented in the liberal group. That of the Spanish MEP who wrote the statement explaining the reasons for Renew’s absence from the votes.
What party is this? I’ll give you a few clues. It rests in front of the statue of the angry racist who founded it. He admitted that he was picking nuts from the tree that the ETA terrorists were holding up. And a week ago, in Spain, he voted for a proposal like the one that is now causing Renew to pout in Europe.
Indeed, This is the very liberal PNV.
