The European People’s Party has joined forces with the ultras to have the European Parliament recognise opposition candidate Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela. The People’s Party has imposed the recognition, which has only been achieved by three countries and none of the 27, as a “red line” in the negotiation with the socialists and the liberals, who are the other two central groups that support the majority that operates in the EU. Seeing that it was impossible to reach an agreed text on the situation in Venezuela, the EPP has chosen to negotiate with the far-right groups.
EPP, Patriots for Europe (with the signature of Hermann Tertsch on behalf of the group that Vox shares with far-right formations such as those of Marine Le Pen or Viktor Orbán) and ECR (which includes Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia or the Polish ultranationalists of Law and Justice) have promoted a joint resolution in the European Parliament to “recognize Edmundo González as the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela.”
Neither the EU nor the United States have taken this measure under the pretext of maintaining pressure on the government of Nicolas Maduro to publish the minutes of the elections of July 28. What the international community maintains is that with the minutes presented by the opposition, it highlights the victory of Edmundo González and does not recognize the victory of Maduro proclaimed by the Venezuelan authorities. Only Argentina of Javier Milei, Ecuador of Daniel Noboa, president who decided the unprecedented assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito, indirectly; and Panama of the conservative José Ramón Mulino, have recognized González as president-elect.
The resolution also recognizes Maria Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela because she was elected in the primaries of the Unitary Platform with 92.35% of the votes.
Socialist sources indicated on Tuesday that they agree with 95% of the text under negotiation regarding the denunciation of the situation and the demand for transparency of the Maduro government, but rejected the recognition, in line with the position of the PSOE in Congress, understanding that it has no “use” at a time when the negotiation is offered an opportunity.
The position of the socialists is similar to that of the liberals of Renew Europe (the PNV family), who were betting on the European Parliament to denounce the situation in Venezuela without taking the step of recognition. “Edmundo González seems to be the winner of the presidential elections with a large majority, according to the copies of the electoral registers so far available to the public,” states their motion for a resolution.
The resolution will be voted on this Thursday at noon and for the moment the figures are not available for it to go ahead, although it largely depends on the level of participation in the blocs, whether the most extreme group in the European Chamber (the sovereignists, which is part of the Alternative for Germany) or whether there is a distribution of votes in other groups.
The Spanish PP once again used Venezuela as a weapon against the government of Pedro Sánchez in the European Parliament during the debate that took place on Tuesday. The spokesperson, Dolors Montserrat, accused the president of having “double standards” by calling a “hero” the Venezuelan opponent to whom Spain granted political asylum and “24 hours later he denies his status as president.”
The PP’s criticism came on the same day that Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares received González. Sánchez himself also did so in Moncloa six days ago, after the opposition candidate arrived in Madrid on a Spanish armed forces plane.
The PP MEP also took the opportunity to attack former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who played a key role in the negotiations that led to González’s departure. Montserrat accused Zapatero of being a “launderer of dictators” and criticised him for remaining “silent and hidden in the face of the biggest fraud in the history of Venezuela”. “Who knows for what dark interests,” he suggested.
