European Parliament to recognise Edmundo González as ‘president-elect’ despite Spain’s reluctance

The initiative is being negotiated by representatives of the European PP, the liberals of Renew and part of the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) with the rest of the parliamentary groups. According to the sources consulted, “the votes are already secure” and now they are trying to compose a consensus textso that the proposed resolution obtains the greatest possible consensus from the moment it is introduced on the agenda, from 16 to 19 September.

For his part, Borrell is putting pressure on the Twenty-Seven to to reach “a common position that recognizes Gonzalez’s victory in the presidential elections of 28 July in Venezuela.” According to an official spokesperson for the High Representative, he defended this even at the Council meeting in Brussels on 29 August, “as he explained in detail at the press conference that followed.”

In this way, the government of Pedro Sanchezwould be behind in its political positions towards these two European institutions in the face of the democratic crisis in Venezuela. Despite this, sources from the Spanish executive insist that our country is A leading European action in the face of the “authoritarian and repressive drift” of the regime Nicolas Maduro.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel AlbaresIn fact, he was the first to publicly express the demand for transparency in the recount of the presidential elections in this Caribbean country, on July 28. And he himself participated in the last meetings of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. a proposal to increase sanctions to the Chavista leaders.

However, the “caution” and the “pragmatism” have guided Spanish diplomatic action in the month and a half since the regime’s National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro the winner.

The minutes

The CNE took only a few hours to close the count, despite the fact that the official website was closed in the middle of the process, while González was ahead. He did so without presenting evidence, neither then nor until now. And giving an official result -of 51% for the manager and one 43% for the applicant– which openly contradicted any possible projection.

This July 29, the 73% of official reportsYes, published by the opposition, reflected a “crushing victory” of the united democratic opposition. The data give a 73.52% voices for González Urrutia, against the 26.47% for Nicolas Maduro.

A few days later, the only international observer accepted by the regime, the Carter Center, through the mouth of Jennie Lincolnits chief observer, confirmed “Edmundo González Urrutia as winner.” According to your data, with access to 83% of CNE minutesthe diplomat arrived at 67% voices, compared to the 30% of Maduro.

The UN panel of experts also released its findings, a week later, on August 14. And I determined that Elections failed to meet “standards of transparency and integrity” be considered democratic.

Diplomatic “contradictions”

To all this, the Spanish government promoted a joint statement with the United States, the EU and 21 other countries, urging Maduro not to resort to violent repression of the protests in the streets and demanding the presentation of the official minutes of the electoral process. In this note, it was already warned that, Without evidence, his victory could not be recognized as legitimate..

A few weeks later, after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Albares went a step further and publicly declared that Spain absolutely did not recognize the leader’s triumph. de facto. But ministerial sources did not want to give further explanations on the consequences of this position.

The Twenty-Seven left the summit saying: No to Maduro and, for now, neither one nor the other to González Urrutia.

And now Spain finds itself in front of the European Parliament, once again, in the lead, alongside the rest of the EU governments. The European Parliament will vote next week, probably by a large majority, in accordance with a measure that Borrell and the opposition Popular Party have been demanding for weeks.: the recognition of Edmundo González as president-elect.

The same thing already happened in January 2019, when the European Parliament, before anyone else, voted overwhelmingly in favour of considering Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela, after a new episode of fraud in Chavist Venezuela.

He then presides over Parliament. Antonio Tajanicurrent Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs: “It is a pleasure to announce that the European Parliament recognises Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela. The European Parliament is the first European institution to do so and we call on the Member States and to the High Representative [Federica Mogherini] do the same as soon as possible in order to have a unique and strong position“, said.

Even then, Edmundo González was secretly taking refuge in the Dutch embassy in Caracas. And it was during this press conference that Borrell was not explicit, but he expressed his disappointment at not having achieved his goal of recognizing González Urrutia as “president-elect.”

Indeed, this Sunday, as a Spanish Air Force plane landed at the Torrejón base with the opposition leader and his wife recently recovered in Caracas, Borrell issued a public statement that went further: “Edmundo González, according to publicly available copies of the minutes, would be the winning presidential candidate elections with a large majority.”

But official sources of the Spanish government remain cautious. Albares has already publicly stated that “Spain does not recognize Maduro’s victory as democratically legitimate” and another is that he will recognize the triumph of Edmundo González.

The minister’s entourage explains that diplomacy requires this type of “contradictions” in order to, among other things, reach an agreement like the one that was concluded. saved the freedom (and perhaps the life) of the opposition leader.