The conservative and opposition Popular Party (PP) managed to gather support this Tuesday (10) in the Spanish Congress of Deputies to approve a project for the house to recognize Edmundo González as president of Venezuela and ask the administration of the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, to do the same.
Over the weekend, González, who had an arrest warrant issued against him by the Chavista justice system, traveled to Spain to receive political asylum.
Spanish media outlets reported that socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, former president of the Spanish government (2004-2011), brokered negotiations between Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela and the Sánchez administration for González’s departure. These talks were criticized by the PP.
According to information from the Spanish newspaper El Diário, the PP’s proposal will be approved this Wednesday (11) because the conservative party obtained the support of Vox, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the Navarrese People’s Union (UPN) and the Canary Islands Coalition.
The support of the PNV, which has five seats in the Congress of Deputies, is extremely symbolic, because the party is an ally of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), led by Sánchez.
“It is a strategic imperative, especially after the operation organized by the dictatorship and facilitated by Zapatero and the Spanish government,” PP deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, who presented the proposal, said in the plenary.
Venezuelan opposition leaders Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, as well as Carolina González, daughter of Edmundo González, were present in the guest gallery on Tuesday.
For the socialist bench, deputy Cristina Narbona considered that it is necessary to “seek real solutions” and “not generate false expectations” and asked that Venezuelans “not let themselves be fooled”, as the recognition of González as president is not “a kind of magic wand that will make Maduro disappear by magic”, she argued.
Narbona said that no government in the European Union, not even those of a conservative nature, has so far raised “the opportunity and convenience” of recognizing González as president, an argument that did not convince the PP, which highlighted that Spain broke the European consensus by recognizing Palestine as a state.
As the debate took place in Congress in Madrid, hundreds of Venezuelan opponents gathered outside to demand recognition of González’s victory, who, in a message read by his daughter, endorsed his commitment to the fight for freedom in Venezuela.
The Chavista National Electoral Council (CNE) says that the July 28 presidential election in Venezuela was won by Maduro. The opposition claims that González won the race and has published copies of the voting records to prove it. (With EFE Agency)
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