The European Parliament recognises Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela

Ane Barcos-Aquí Europa The European Parliament yesterday approved a resolution in which it urges the EU to “do everything possible” to ensure that “Edmundo González Urrutia, the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela, can take office on January 10, 2025.” The motion for a resolution to this effect, tabled by the right-wing and far-right groups in the European Parliament and approved in the House, denounces electoral fraud in the presidential elections and calls on the EU and its Member States to request an international arrest warrant against Nicolás Maduro for “crimes against humanity”. The joint resolution recognising Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela was presented by the main right-wing and far-right groups in the European Parliament. The EPP Group, the Conservatives and Reformists group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the new far-right group Patriots for Europe, promoted by Viktor Orbán, joined forces in this initiative. Among the promoters were the Spanish MEPs Dolors Montserrat, Esteban González Pons, Antonio López-Istúriz White of the Popular Party and Hermann Tertsch of Vox. With 309 votes in favour, 201 against and 12 abstentions, the European Parliament condemns the regime of Nicolás Maduro for systematic violations of human rights, including political persecution and repression of the opposition. It also calls on the international community to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and to impose sanctions on those responsible for these crimes. The European Parliament also recognises Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate president after the elections of 28 July 2024 and urges “the Union and its Member States to request an international arrest warrant against Nicolás Maduro for crimes against humanity, based on all the serious violations of human rights he has committed”. However, the proposal to urge the EU and the Member States to make the same recognition of the “legitimate” president did not prosper. The Renew group proposed replacing this petition with a request to the International Criminal Court to include ongoing human rights violations and arbitrary detentions in its investigations into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Maduro regime and hold those responsible accountable, although this amendment was not approved. PNV MEP Oihane Agirregoitia, the initial promoter of the debate on the situation in Venezuela and the vote on a resolution, proposed on behalf of her Renew group to replace the recognition of “Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela” with “Underlines that Edmundo González appears to be the winner of the presidential elections by a large majority, according to the minutes of the vote that have so far been made available to the public.” This proposal was also not approved. Reproaches between PSOE and PP The debate prior to the vote in the Strasbourg parliamentary chamber on Tuesday provoked an exchange of reproaches between the Spanish left and right. The Popular Party accused the Spanish government of “double standards” for welcoming Edmundo González but not recognizing him as president-elect, while the socialists criticized the PP for instrumentalizing the Venezuelan crisis for partisan purposes. These differences were reflected in Thursday’s vote, where the PSOE voted against the resolution proposed by the EPP and the ultraconservatives of Patriots for Europe and ECR. Gratitude from Edmundo González On his social network X, Edmundo González says: “Thank you! Venezuelans want the same thing that Europeans have achieved: to live in freedom and democracy.” “As president-elect, I thank the European Parliament for this recognition that transcends me; it is the recognition of the sovereign will of the people of Venezuela and the thunderous voice of a majority that demands that the truth be respected,” he says. “And my message to the Venezuelans: The international community continues to increase its support for the sovereign will of our people. “We are working tirelessly to make it count!” he concludes. The tension between the PP and the Government rises Meanwhile, the situation in Venezuela has contributed to raising the tone in Spanish internal politics, after González Urrutia, exiled since September 8 in Spain to request political asylum, revealed on Wednesday that, during his stay at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, representatives of the Government of Nicolás Maduro made him sign a document under the threat that, if he did not do so, he would have to “face the consequences”, a “coercion” that in his opinion nullifies the text. In a video broadcast through his social networks, González Urrutia responded in this way to the presentation by the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, of a “signed letter” in which the opposition says he abides by the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of his country to validate Maduro's victory in the elections of July 28. According to the opposition leader, while he was sheltered in the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, he was presented with a document that he had to sign in order to obtain the safe conduct that would allow him to leave Venezuela for exile. “A document produced under duress is absolutely null and void due to a serious flaw in the consent,” he added. In response to these statements by González Urrutia, official sources from the Foreign Ministry assured The Diplomat yesterday that the Spanish Government “has nothing to do with any document or negotiation between Edmundo González and the Government of Venezuela.” “When Edmundo González requested to be welcomed in the residence of the Spanish ambassador, he was guaranteed that he could see him or carry out the arrangements he decided to make in relation to his situation,” they continued. “The Minister of Foreign Affairs gave direct instructions to the ambassador not to interfere in the arrangements that the opposition leader could make,” they concluded. The denial from the Foreign Ministry does not seem to have reassured the opposition. At a press conference in Rome after meeting with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, yesterday demanded the dismissal of the ambassador in Venezuela and the resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and asked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to appear urgently to explain the pressures and coercion that, according to him, the Venezuelan opposition candidate suffered in the Spanish Embassy by leaders of the Maduro regime. In his opinion, there are no excuses or reasons why it can be tolerated that “in a Spanish Embassy anyone is coerced”, and even less “a representative of the Venezuelan people”. In his appearance, the popular leader addressed the Italian Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, to ask him if he would consent to “two high officials of a dictatorship entering an Italian Embassy to coerce the elected president of a country”. “Would the Italian government accept such an episode?” he asked. “The answer is obvious and so is my position: the Spanish government has lied,” he added. “Spanish diplomacy, an essential pillar of European diplomacy in Latin America, cannot be at the service of a dictatorial regime,” he continued. “The president of the Spanish government must give immediate explanations and accept that Spain is not equidistant between civilization and extortion or between democracy and dictatorship. It cannot be equidistant or collaborative,” he added. Hours earlier, the deputy general secretary of the PP for foreign affairs, Esteban González Pons, accused Sánchez's Executive of being a "necessary collaborator" of Maduro by allowing the Bolivarian regime to "coerce" Edmundo González in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas and denounced that "the Government of Spain is involved in the coup d'état that has taken place in Venezuela." "Its great plotter," he said, was former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. "Behind everything that is happening, it must be clear that there is also José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who remains silent, without saying anything, without making any declaration. He has compromised the Government in this operation," he denounced. All these accusations provoked an immediate reaction from the PSOE, which yesterday demanded the immediate resignation of the deputy secretary of the PP. “It is intolerable that the person in charge of international relations for the Popular Party is a hooligan whose only problem is the frustration of not having found out that Edmundo González was a refugee in the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela and would be welcomed in our country,” declared sources from Ferraz. “The outbursts of González Pons are incompatible with diplomacy. If this man were to one day head up Spain's foreign relations we would end up on the outskirts of international politics. The accusations he makes are so serious that we doubt he is aware of what he is saying. In any case, that is no excuse, and his words today are the straw that broke the camel's back. That is why we at the PSOE demand the immediate resignation of Esteban González Pons,” added the socialist sources.

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