Congress will ask for Edmundo González’s recognition after PNV support for PP proposal

Eduardo González The PP's motion for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia to be recognised as Venezuela's president-elect will be approved this Wednesday in Congress thanks to the support of the PNV. The Basque nationalists thus join the PP, Vox and Coalición Canaria and the rejection of the PSOE, Sumar, Podemos, BNG and EH Bildu. In this way, and barring unforeseen events, the proposal will have the 137 votes of the PP, the 33 of Vox, the five of the PNV, the two of Coalición Canaria and the vote of the UPN. The Non-Law Proposition, which calls for the recognition of the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as “winner of the presidential elections held on July 28, 2024 in Venezuela”, will be voted on three days after the arrival of the opposition leader to Madrid on a Spanish Air Force plane, after the Government has promised to grant him political asylum. As it is a Non-Law Proposition, and therefore a non-binding text, the Government will not be obliged to recognize González Urrutia. However, the approval should have a strong symbolic content for the Venezuelan opposition, since, through this text, the Spanish Executive receives the 'de facto' mandate from the Lower House to officially recognize the victory of the PUD candidate. The vote will take place on Wednesday, but the text was debated yesterday in the plenary session of Congress. A few hours before the debate, the Government's spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, declared in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that the objective of the Executive is to maintain a "unanimous position with the 27 countries of the European Union", which includes demanding "maximum transparency" with the electoral records, and denounced that the PP's intention, with its proposal is to "divide" and "skip" the position held by all the countries of the EU, which "borders on absolute irresponsibility and cynicism". For its part, the PSOE had presented an amendment to the text in which it accepted some points of the motion, such as ensuring the freedoms of opposition leaders in Venezuela and working so that the EU studies the recognition of Edmundo González, and in which it requested the recognition of "all the mediation work" of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The PP spokesman in Congress, Miguel Tellado, described the amendment as “indecent and immoral” and asked the PSOE to choose “whether it is with Maduro or with democracy” and support Edmundo González as the “legitimate winner” of the Venezuelan elections. Also before the debate, the PNV spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, announced his party's position to the press and regretted that, “unfortunately, Venezuela is being used as a battering ram for the two major parties to throw darts at each other.” “There is no shortage of crude speeches and overstepping lines that make no sense, looking more at internal politics than at the restoration of democracy in Venezuela,” he added. He also said he “understood” the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, that the recognition of González as president “could harm” Spain's position as an intermediary, which has proven “effective” in the case of Edmundo González's request for political asylum. Sánchez will meet with González Urrutia this week For his part, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared yesterday that granting asylum to Edmundo González represents “a gesture of humanity” and warned that any “political interpretation” that is made of his reception in Spain is “inappropriate”. In addition, the head of the Executive announced that he will meet with the opposition candidate at the end of this week, when he returns from his official trip to China. Edmundo González himself declared upon his arrival in Madrid that leaving the country was at his request to avoid “pain and suffering”. Both the Socialist Group and Sumar, Podemos, the BNG and EH Bildu have already expressed their rejection of the proposal and have warned that, until the electoral results are known, it is not appropriate to recognise the victory of any candidate. The debate During the debate in the plenary session, the deputy spokesperson for the PP, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, stated that “the minutes collected by the citizens” demonstrate the victory of González Urrutia with 66% of the votes, defended “the sacred sovereignty of the Venezuelan people” and urged democracies to “promote the democratic transition” in the country. She also asked the Government, as it did with the recognition of the State of Palestine, to “break the (international) consensus for this as well” and recognise González Urrutia as president-elect. The PP spokesperson also stated that the exile of the Venezuelan candidate is part of “an operation designed by the dictatorship, organised by Zapatero and facilitated by the Government of Spain”. “Zapatero has for years maintained an anti-democratic intimate relationship with Maduro and his criminal court. He is anything but a mediator, he has always used dialogue to give oxygen to the dictatorship”, she added. “Edmundo is stripped of his position and Zapatero is exalted, he is made a hero,” she said. For her part, Cristina Narbona, from the PSOE, assured that the objective of her party is to urge the EU to study the “consequences” that the recognition of Edmundo González could have and asked the PP not to use Venezuelans as a “battering ram for anything the Government does.” Likewise, she accused the PP of generating “false expectations” because the recognition of González Urrutia “is not a magic wand.” “The first thing to do is not to deceive Venezuelans. I wish it were like that, but we know that things do not work this way,” continued the deputy, who recalled that the recognition of Juan Guaidó in 2019 as president in charge “was of no use.” Narbona insisted that the current Executive is the one that “has done the most for the Venezuelan people”, with the reception of 125,000 Venezuelans who “know that they are not living (in Spain) in a Chavista dictatorship as is said by the opposition ranks, but in a democratic country that welcomes and defends human rights and democracy within and outside the borders”. During the debate, Vox, PNV, UPN and Coalición Canaria confirmed their support for the motion. “My experience is that Venezuela has been used a lot in this Chamber”, lamented Aitor Esteban. “The reality is that there is brutal repression and widespread repression. Maduro himself went so far as to say that he would win the elections by fair means or foul. That there would be a bloodbath” if not, he added. Apart from that, he positively valued the position of the Government if its objective is to improve mediation work and facilitate asylum for the Venezuelan people. González's message to the Venezuelan rally Meanwhile, hundreds of opponents of the Nicolás Maduro regime demonstrated yesterday outside Congress to "claim the mandate of July 28" and ask for the recognition of González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela. The rally was called by the opposition leader María Corina Machado and was attended by important Venezuelan dissidents, such as Leopoldo López or Antonio Ledesma. Edmundo González's daughter went up to the stage to read a new message from her father, in which he asks his compatriots "not to lose heart" and assures them: "I will not let you down." In the message, González Urrutia also calls on the international community "to redouble efforts to restore democracy and freedom in Venezuela." And he affirms: "The will of the people expressed on July 28 must be respected and we will make it respected." "María Corina and I - affirms the opposition leader - assure you that this fight that we began will continue until we achieve the objectives that we set ourselves, until the end." And, after thanking the Spanish Government for the support and shelter that they have given him and his family "in these difficult days," he concludes: "Compatriots, do not be discouraged, I will not let you down."

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