The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, said that the government “expects forgiveness and apologies” from the Popular Party for the “insulting and slanderous” statements about Spain’s role in signing the document by which Edmundo González recognized Nicolas Maduro’s victory “under duress,” as he said.
This is what Albares said this Friday during a meeting with journalists at the headquarters of his ministry since, in his words, the “only thing” that the Spanish embassy did in Caracas was “to grant protection to Edmundo González and guarantee a space where” he felt safe, he felt calm.
Also provide him with a space, he added, where the Venezuelan opposition leader would have “the freedom to see whoever he wants, to talk to whoever he wants, to think as long as he wants, to take and move what he wants.” stay in his residence, get out and come to Spain.
In this sense, the head of Foreign Affairs also said that González had “highlighted” in his last statement “the work of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas.”
“I am convinced that if we had followed what the Popular Party suggests instead of being free in Madrid, I would now be detained in Caracas and no Spaniard or Venezuelan would have understood that,” he stressed.
Likewise, during this meeting, Albares once again described as “insulting and slanderous” the statements made yesterday by the deputy secretary for institutional affairs of the PP, Esteban González-Pons, in which he accused the Sánchez executive of being a “necessary collaborator” in certain events that he described as a “coup d’état” in Venezuela, statements that immediately led the PSOE to ask Feijóo to remove him from his position within the party.
“Edmundo González is a free man in Spain with freedom of movement and expression and it saddens me that the Popular Party and Mr. Feijóo forced him to transmit this statement,” he concluded.
