The President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands asked the Venezuelan authorities this Saturday to make public “as soon as possible every minute [de las mesas electorales] to guarantee the total transparency and integrity of the electoral process”, which culminated last Sunday in the presidential election. The leaders of the main EU countries did not take the step of recognizing opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner, as the US government has already done, limiting themselves to claiming that “the opposition indicates that it has collected and published more than 80 documents.” % of the minutes produced at each polling station”, so “this verification is essential to recognize the will of the Venezuelan people.”
In the joint statement, made public after 11pm (Spanish time on the Spanish peninsula), European leaders expressed their “deep concern about the situation in Venezuela” after the presidential elections and they warn that “the rights of all Venezuelans, especially political leaders, must be respected during this process”; referring to the battle that the Nicolás Maduro regime is waging in the streets with the demonstrators who denounce electoral fraud. “We strongly condemn any arrest or threat against them”, they stress, referring to the possibility that Edmundo González himself, María Corina Machado and other opposition leaders could be detained by the regime.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation with our partners and support democracy and peace for the Venezuelan people,” the joint statement concluded.
In addition to Pedro Sánchez, the declaration will be signed by French President Emmanuel Macron; the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof; Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk; and Portuguese Luís Montenegro.
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