<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured yesterday that he will not break European unity by recognizing Edmundo González as the winner of the elections in Venezuela.</strong></h4> During a press conference in New York, where he is participating in the UN High Level Week, Sánchez insisted that the Government of Nicolás Maduro must make public the minutes of the elections held on July 28 and there must be international verification. When asked how he will act if that does not happen, he answered that it must be done “step by step,” and pointed out that the important thing is international pressure to make these minutes known, “as President Lula da Silva is doing - he said - as President Petro is doing, as we are doing, and the whole of the EU, with Borrell at the head, so that there is a verification of the electoral result, credible, verifiable, in this case by the international authorities, and then, indeed, we will see.” In any case, he stressed: “We are not going to break European unity.” He added: “We understand and empathize with the pronouncements of the European Parliament and, logically, of the Congress of Deputies in Spain, but the task that the Governments of Spain and the Member States have is to create the conditions for an agreement between the parties in Venezuela and to get out of this situation, which is very frustrating, and to denounce any attempt at repression, of disrespect for human rights, which unfortunately and regrettably is being perpetrated right now in Venezuela.” The President of the Government pointed out that Spain is leading or co-leading “regional initiatives so that it is the Venezuelans themselves, the opposition and the regime, who find a solution to this situation.” Regarding the two Spaniards detained in Venezuela, accused of being involved in a plan to attack Maduro and other leaders of the regime, Sánchez assured that the Government continues to ask for explanations and information from the Venezuelan authorities so that they can be attended to by the consular services. He also highlighted the exercise of solidarity that Spanish society is doing with the Venezuelan people, since in Spain, he recalled, there are currently some 120,000 people from this country, among them the presidential candidate Edmundo González after his request for asylum. The head of the Executive regretted the attitude of the PP, indicating that he finds it curious that "even something of which we should all feel proud, ends up becoming an object of controversy." "We have an opposition that has gone from being an opposition in Spain to being an opposition against Spain," he said. <h5><strong>Controversy in Congress</strong></h5> Hours earlier, in the Congress of Deputies,<strong> the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, avoided repeating the qualification of "dictatorship" for the regime of Nicolás Maduro,</strong> despite the insistence of the PP during the control session of the Executive in the Plenary of the Chamber. PP MP Belén Hoyo congratulated the minister "for daring to verbalize" what the majority thinks and for having expressed it days ago during the presentation of a book in Madrid. After that, she challenged Robles to repeat in parliament that she considers Maduro a dictator, "unlike the rest of the Government." She was referring to the words that Robles pronounced on September 13 when she called Maduro's regime a dictatorship, which caused the Venezuelan Government to call its ambassador in Madrid for consultations and summon the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, to express its protest. The minister, however, did not respond to the MP's challenge, so she demanded that she "dare to defend democracy without any fear" and asked her the reason why she "does not dare" to ratify her words and "who has made her back down." Robles joked by telling Belén Hoyo that the next time she speaks at a book presentation she will invite her so that the MP understands what she says and "does not need to be told again" what she says there and "hears it first hand". According to the minister, the PP does not care "at all about Venezuela" nor does it care about Ukraine, by now questioning the sending of arms, she pointed out. And she added: "They don't care about anything, Venezuela, Ukraine, the thing is to make opposition and noise."
