The majority of the Congress of Deputies supported this Tuesday during the parliamentary debate a non-law proposal of the PP aimed at recognizing Edmundo Gonzalez as the elected president of Venezuela. With Caroline GonzalezEdmundo’s daughter in the guest gallery of the lower house, next to Antonio Ledezmaformer mayor of Caracas, and other exiles, the deputy spokesman of the PP, Cayetana Alvarez of Toledodefended the initiative of the popular claiming that in defiance of “what the minutes say,” González’s victory, as the Sánchez government and its partners are doing, is “an attack on reality”.
In his speech, Álvarez de Toledo stressed that “as long as there is a single Venezuelan willing to raise the flag of freedom, risking one’s life for democracyto take over, there will be hope. “And there are many,” he warned before the social-communist deputies. “They can break a man, a hundred, a thousand, but they will never be able to break the cause. Nor to an unbreakable woman, María Corina Machado, a woman to whom the feminist movement, if it were not so sectarian, would erect a monument, the bravest, the heroine of the 21st century,” stressed the PP deputy.
Álvarez de Toledo thus demanded that Sánchez “work so that on January 10 Edmundo González takes the oath and that the person who goes into exile is Nicolás Maduro.” “The dictatorship will not find Spanish indifference as an ally“Your cause is our cause, there are no moral or ideological boundaries. This is a battle between civilization and barbarism and we will fight it until the definitive liberation of Venezuela,” he added. Meanwhile, outside the Congress, In the Plaza de las Cortés, several hundred Venezuelans demonstrated to claim the victory of Edmundo González in the elections of 28J.
For his part, the PNV spokesman in Congress, Aitor Estebanannounced this Tuesday, a few hours before the plenary session, that its five deputies would support in Wednesday’s vote the PP initiative that demands that the government recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela after the elections of July 28. Thus, thanks to the support of the Basque nationalists, in addition to the votes of PP, Vox, UPN and Canarian CoalitionThe initiative will continue.
The PSOE has presented an amendment to the PNL in which it erases the PP’s point aimed at recognising Edmundo González as president-elect and limits itself to suggesting that it be analysed within the EU whether this recognition could help to achieve a “negotiated political solution” to the situation in Venezuela.
The Socialist Group thus proposes that the Executive be called upon to “work within the European Union to maintain, as has been the case up to now, a common position that allows for a negotiated political solution for the benefit of the Venezuelan people and that includes analysing whether recognition by Edmundo González Urrutia can contribute to this.
During the debate, the socialist deputy Cristina Narbonne He stressed that the aim of his training is to urge the EU to study the “consequences” This could have the recognition of Edmundo González. “The first thing to do is not to generate false expectations, not to deceive Venezuelans (…) by making them believe that the simple recognition of Edmundo González as president-elect It’s a magic wand “This makes Maduro disappear as if by magic,” Narbona added.
Furthermore, the PSOE amendment introduces praise for the “mediation work” of the former president of the government. José Luis Rodriguez Zapateroally of the dictatorial regime of Nicolas Maduro. Thus, point 11 raised by the socialists in their text speaks of “recognizing all the mediation work of President Zapatero to allow the release of political prisoners and to building bridges between government and opposition and urge the government to facilitate it.
The Socialists also advocated in their amendment to urge Congress to “support granting asylum in Spain to Edmundo González and other possible individuals.” leaders of the democratic opposition Venezuelans, for humanitarian and political reasons, so that their political rights and freedom of expression are guaranteed. In other words, Sánchez’s party also does not recognize Edmundo González as the elected president who won the elections in Venezuela.
Maduro’s arrest
Likewise, the socialists’ text fails to demand that the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest Nicolas Maduro, as previous presidents have done. Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy. Action supported by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in favor of granting asylum to Edmundo but recognizing him as elected president.
For her part, the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegriaconsidered this Tuesday that the PP “borders on irresponsibility” with this illegal proposal (PNL), while the Executive understands that Feijóo’s party has as the only objective to “divide”also ignoring the position of all EU countries that González will not be recognized as president-elect until he “knows the electoral record.” “This borders on absolute irresponsibility and cynicism,” Alegría said at a press conference at the Moncloa Palace.
The minister insisted that the Spanish government has maintained a “clear position” since the presidential elections of July 28 in Venezuela and which is the one shared by the EU partners. This position, he stressed, implies requesting the publication of the electoral results and “continuing to support the progress of democracy in Venezuela,” he said.
