The Diplomat
People’s Party (PP) and Ciudadanos demanded yesterday that the government go on leading the European Union to keep the recognition of Juan Guaidó as president of the National Assembly and president in charge of Venezuela, after the elections held last December 6 in that country, the result of which has not been recognized by the Twenty-Seven.
The request of the opposition parties comes on the eve of today’s inauguration of the National Assembly in Caracas. The previous Parliament, headed by Guaidó, has decided to extend his mandate, a decision that was annulled by the Supreme Court, controlled by Chavismo.
In its communiqué, the PP insists on qualifying as “illegitimate and fraudulent” the vote promoted by the Nicolás Maduro regime and ratifies the recognition of the National Assembly elected in 2015 and Juan Guaidó as the president in charge of the interim government “to hold free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in Venezuela”.
Likewise, it insists on “demanding” that the government of Pedro Sánchez maintain the recognition of the National Assembly and Juan Guaidó as the president in charge and asks that Spain “lead in the European Union this same recognition and avoid the possibility that a false conflict of legitimacy may be taken advantage of by the enemies of democracy and freedom to give oxygen to the Venezuelan dictatorship”.
For her part, the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Marta Martin, presented a question to the Congressional Bureau so that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, can clarify what “legal formula” the government will use to guarantee its recognition of Guaidó starting this Tuesday and if this formula will also be extended to the rest of the members of the outgoing National Assembly, reports Europa Press.
It also asks the government to clarify the actions it is taking to “lead” the adoption of this legal formula in coordination with its European partners and whether it will include the delivery of letters of credence to Antonio Ecarri, designated by Guaidó as its ambassador to Spain “in compliance with the mandate issued by the Congress last September.
Diplomatic sources consulted yesterday by Europa Press affirmed that the Spanish government is negotiating with the rest of the members of the EU a “consensual position” before the “new scenario” that opens this Tuesday in Venezuela and the inauguration scheduled for today.
The 27, although they refused to recognize the results of the elections, left in suspense their decision on whether they will continue to consider Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela, as for example they said they will do among other United States and United Kingdom.
Guaidó’s representative in Spain, Antonio Ecarri, hopes that “in the next few days” there will be some kind of public endorsement of Guaidó by the countries that already recognize him, which are 25 of the 27 in the european bloc.