On 17 September 2024, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the recent presidential elections in Venezuela.
That resolution (which can be read here) was approved by 309 votes in favour, 201 against and 12 abstentions. You can see how each MEP voted here. The resolution was supported at the time by centrist and right-wing parties, namely the European People's Party (EPP), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). The Socialists voted against, along with the Communists, the far left and the Greens.
That resolution had two important points for the democratic movement in Venezuela. They were the following:
2. Recognises Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President of Venezuela; also recognises María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, since she was elected at the primaries of the Unitary Platform in 2023 with 92,35 % of the vote;
3. Calls for the EU and its Member States to do their utmost to ensure that the legitimate and democratically elected president can take office on 10 January 2025, in accordance with the Venezuelan Constitution;
This week, the European Parliament has adopted a new resolution on Venezuela (you can read it here) which has been approved with 374 votes in favour, 53 against and 163 abstentions. You can see how each member of the European Parliament voted here. This time, there were changes between the European parliamentary groups. The ECR was split in two (with one part voting in favour and the other opting to abstain). The EPP and the Socialists supported the resolution (this time with the largest left party distancing itself from the far left) and PfE and ESN abstained.
In this text there has been a significant change compared to September. This has been recognized by a media outlet close to the socialists, Cadena SER, which has highlighted that this new text does not ask the 27 members of the EU to recognize Edmundo González as president-elect, unlike what was stated in point 3 of the resolution approved in September. The same media outlet points out that PfE (the Vox group) has abstained because it considers that this text is not harsh enough towards Maduro's socialist dictatorship.
Point F of the new resolution approved this week states: "on 19 September 2024, Parliament recognised Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President of Venezuela." This statement is included in the recitals of the text. However, in the resolution (points 1 to 16) that request to EU member countries to support Edmundo González has disappeared. The paradox is that point 1 of the resolution states:
"Condemns in the strongest possible terms the usurpation of the presidency by Nicolás Maduro and highlights that his regime is illegitimate and his usurpation of the presidency constitutes an unlawful attempt to remain in power by force."
But unlike the September resolution, this text avoids asking EU member countries to be consistent with this statement, as if it no longer mattered whether they support Edmundo González or not as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
On Thursday, PfE issued a statement stating the following:
On September 19, 2024, the European Parliament, supported by Patriots for Europe, approved a landmark resolution recognizing Edmundo González as Venezuela's legitimate president. This resolution urged the EU and its Member States to stand firm and formally recognize González, providing a ray of hope for the Venezuelan people.
However, during this plenary session, the EPP has chosen to align itself with socialists and left-wing parties instead of standing with Patriots for Europe in defending Venezuela's democracy. The final text of the resolution is a watered-down version that fails to include critical elements, such as the explicit recognition of Edmundo González as the legitimate president of Venezuela; it does not urges to the EU and all its Member States to recognise Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela; and it also omits any reference to Venezuela's allied authoritarian regimes, including Cuba, Nicaragua, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
It has been very clear for years that allying with the socialists is never free, and the EPP should already know this. Regrettably, this centrist party seems to have decided that it was more important to join the "cordon sanitaire" of the left against the right-wing parties than to maintain a firm position against the Maduro dictatorship. A regrettable step backwards that means that this resolution can be ignored by governments such as that of the socialist Pedro Sánchez, whose complicit attitude with the Maduro dictatorship is now beyond any doubt.
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