The Diplomat The Congress of Deputies yesterday rejected the requests of the PP to summon the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, to appear to give an account of Spain's position regarding the situation arising from the elections in Venezuela at the end of July. The Permanent Commission of the Congress debated and voted on the three 'popular' requests, one for Sánchez and two for Albares, to explain the position of the Executive in relation to the elections in the Caribbean country, which gave Nicolás Maduro the victory amid accusations of "fraud". The three votes ended with 33 votes in favour, from the PP and Vox; 35 against, from the PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Bildu, PNV and Podemos; and the abstention of Junts, whose representative in the debate, the deputy Marta Madrenas, did not intervene in the debate prior to the vote on the petitions. The spokesman for the PP in Congress, Miguel Tellado, justified the request for Sánchez and Albares to appear by assuring that, in the face of the "fraud" and "repression" in Venezuela, the president "keeps a deafening silence" on the situation in the Caribbean country. "He has not uttered a single word about what is happening," he stressed. Along these lines, he stated that Sánchez prefers "left-wing dictatorships rather than right-wing democratic governments." Tellado wondered if this "lukewarmness has anything to do with Delcy" Rodríguez's suitcases, in reference to the meeting held between the vice president of Venezuela and the former Minister of Public Works José Luis Ábalos at Adolfo Suárez Airport. He also took advantage of his intervention to attack former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the mediation work he carries out in Venezuela. The PP spokesman questioned "who paid" for the former president's trip to attend the Venezuelan electoral process, whether it was "Maduro, the PSOE or a company with economic interests in the area" and regretted that his work "embarrasses" the Spanish people. "We demand light on the darkness that surrounds this relationship," he concluded. For its part, Vox did express its support for the PP's requests. Its spokesman in the Permanent Deputation, José María Sánchez, criticized "the ideological slavery of the Spanish left to its core ideology, Marxism-Leninism" and focused on the "proven and proven incompetence" of Albares, which "is in step with an erratic foreign policy." For its part, the PSOE charged against the PP for wanting to make "political noise" and "internal politics based on hoaxes and falsehoods" to "deteriorate" the Government using the situation in Venezuela. The deputy Sergio Gutiérrez conveyed the PSOE's refusal to hold these appearances, alleging "lack of political necessity" since Albares already appeared to address the same issue in the Senate two weeks ago and that next week a European Council of Foreign Ministers will be held in which the situation in the Caribbean country will be discussed. Therefore, Sergio Gutiérrez believes that the 'popular' are looking to "make political noise" and "do internal politics based on hoaxes and falsehoods" using Venezuela to "deteriorate" the Sánchez Executive. "You do not want to talk about Venezuela, you want to take advantage of a crisis that is serious," he said. Partners: Venezuela, the PP's "obsession" Sumar and the Government's usual parliamentary partners PNV, Bildu and ERC also expressed their refusal to summon Sánchez and Albares to appear in the Lower House to talk about Venezuela, and accused the PP of being "obsessed" with the Latin American country and using it as a "battering ram" against the Government. In the words of the secretary general of the Sumar parliamentary group in Congress, Txema Guijarro, the PP wants to "turn the difficult internal situation" in Venezuela into "a permanent battering ram against the Spanish left in general and against the Government in particular", using the country as a "baton" against the Executive. The PNV deputy Mikel Legarda ratified his party's refusal to appear, justifying that Albares already appeared in the Senate, although he wanted to make it clear that his party criticised the Venezuelan electoral process. EH Bildu MP Oskar Matute opposed the proposal with the same argument and pointed out the "partisan logic" that, in his opinion, the PP is pursuing. He also stated that Venezuela is one of the "summer snakes" of the 'popular', who he believes are "obsessed" with the country.The ERC MP Teresa Jordà expressed herself in the same way, focusing on the fact that it is "the umpteenth time" that the PP has used Venezuela as a "throwing weapon" against the left-wing benches.
