The European People’s Party (EPP) has succeeded on Thursday in having the European Parliament recognise Edmundo González as the “legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela”, in a vote that has had the almost exclusive support of the most conservative and ultra-right forces in the chamber, including the MEPs of Alternative for Germany (AfD). A breach of the cordon sanitaire, as denounced by the other European forces, which, however, has not served the conservatives in their main objective: to get the EU and its Member States to be urged to take this step as well, which has not been taken so far by any of them, not even by the countries governed by conservative forces.
The resolution, strongly supported by the Spanish PP, has received the support of 309 MEPs, compared to 201 who voted against and 12 abstentions.
The liberals, after some amendments failed, refused to vote on the final text in protest against the agreement with the far right to push it through. In a forceful gesture, they held up their voting cards – which they have to insert into a machine in their seats in order to cast their vote – to demonstrate their rejection of a resolution that was signed, among others, by the ultras of Patriots for Europe, the new group formed by Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and the National Rally of the French Marine Le Pen, and to which Vox also belongs. The social democrats, for their part, have stressed that the EPP has been left “alone with the far right in its position on Venezuela” and have denounced that, with this attitude, they favour the “normalisation” of the most extreme forces, which have gained strength in the last European elections.
The text, which is more of a political gesture than anything else because the European Parliament does not have the power to recognise leaders and does not entail any obligations for the States, recognises González Urrutia as the “legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela” and María Corina Machado as the “leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela”. In addition, it calls on the EU and its Member States to “do everything possible to ensure that the legitimate and democratically elected president can take office on 10 January 2025”.
But although the PP has celebrated it as a “very tough resolution that condemns the Maduro regime and recognises Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela”, the Popular Party has not finally achieved what it was most looking for: the paragraph of the resolution that urged the Twenty-Seven to immediately recognise González Urrutia as the “legitimate” president-elect, something that no European country has done so far and that groups such as the Socialists warn could definitively close the door to a negotiated solution with Caracas, has been rejected during the (at times very confusing) vote on the amendments.
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In a discussion led by the Spanish Popular Party (four of the six EPP signatories of the text are from the PP: Montserrat, Esteban González Pons, Gabriel Mato and Antonio López-Istúriz White), the European conservatives had set the recognition of González Urrutia as a red line. A fact that led all European groups (social democrats, liberals, greens and the left) except those on the far right to get up from the negotiating table on Tuesday to try to reach a consensus on a text (there was a general interest in expressing concern about the situation in the South American country).
These votes are what have finally allowed the EPP to gather enough votes for a resolution that is also signed by the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the group led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and even by the most extreme Patriots for Europe (for whom the text is signed by Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch). In Thursday’s vote, it was also supported by, among others, the AfD MEPs and the Spanish ultra Alvise Pérez.
“The EPP has decided to build an agreement on Venezuela with Meloni, Orbán and Le Pen, and with the support of the German far right, instead of doing so with the pro-European parties,” denounced the socialist Javi López, vice-president of the Eurochamber and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “The socialists demand an end to repression in Venezuela and respect for the will expressed at the polls,” but “a hasty recognition of Edmundo González as the winner of the elections is of little use given the precedents,” he stressed in reference to the failed case of the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and his international recognition as “interim” president.
“We would have liked to see, following the example of the Platform opposed to Nicolás Maduro, dialogue here in the European Parliament as well and an attempt to reach a joint resolution with those political parties that have given centrality and stability to the European political project, avoiding partisanship and alignments with the extreme right, but this has not been the case,” also lamented the MEP of the PNV, who is part of Renew, Oihane Agirregoitia.
In fact, the liberal group decided not to even vote on the final text, as a “symbolic gesture” of rejection, especially towards the ultras of Patriots for Europe, against whom it has called for a strict cordon sanitaire to be maintained.
“The Patriots do not think about the interests of the Venezuelan opposition. Renew will not participate in this far-right playbook,” the party said just before the vote took place on the last day of the plenary session in Strasbourg. “Renew Europe fully supports the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, but will not sign political agreements with the so-called ‘Patriots’,” stressed its leader, Frenchwoman Valérie Hayer. “The future of the EU must be forged in the political centre. The rise of extremism is a direct threat to the stability and future of Europe and it is imperative that all political parties oppose it,” she added.
By allying with far-right forces to push through the Venezuela resolution, “the EPP is normalising extremist views in our societies and is guilty of undermining the European Union and its hard-won values,” agreed the vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in charge of foreign policy, Yannis Maniatis.
In addition to the recognition of González, the approved resolution “strongly condemns and fully rejects the electoral fraud orchestrated by the National Electoral Council, controlled by the regime, which refused to make the official result public.” The MEPs also condemn the arrest warrant against González and highlight the decision of the Spanish Government to grant him political asylum, among other elements.
In a message on social media, González thanked the European Parliament for “this recognition that transcends me, which 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.” Given the “clarity of the results,” he added, “I consider that the time has come to ask Europe once again and more energetically than ever for all that it could do through its collegial action at an international level to contribute to the goal of making popular sovereignty expressed at the polls prevail in Venezuela.”
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