Venezuela, this theoretical foreign policy issue transformed into pure Spanish domestic policy, will propose this Wednesday A parliamentary victory for the PP. Chavismo has always marked a clear boundary between right and left, and that is why the Popular Party has managed to win the support of the most moderate sector of the bloc that supports the government. At least the PNV and the Canarian Coalition will vote in Congress in favor of a proposal that, against the discretion of the Executive, recognizes opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of last July's elections and legitimate president of the country.
The gesture of the Spanish Parliament with González, exiled in Spain since last weekend, This is strictly symbolic and has no legal value. Only the government has the power to approve official recognition and is not obliged to put into practice the text approved by Congress, a non-legislative proposal. The PNV spokesman himself, Aitor Esteban, wanted to emphasize this point during the plenary debate. Esteban also clarified that, although he supports the initiative of the first opposition party, his group considers that the Government ““did the right thing” after Venezuelan elections and the self-proclamation of Nicolas Maduro as the winner. Spain has not recognized the Chavista leader either.
As the government has defended, the PSOE has stressed that it is the group of 27 countries of the European Union that must agree to recognize the victory of the opposition. The socialists presented an amendment, rejected by the PP, which refers to the efforts within the EU to seek a negotiated solution that allows a transition to democracy and condemns the repressive policy of the Maduro regime. The lack of willingness to agree between the two main parties was reflected in the role that the texts of each one granted to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, involved for years in negotiations with the Chavista government. The PP's includes a disqualification of the former president, unacceptable to the socialists, as a “whitewasher” of the Bolivarian “dictatorship.” And the socialists' includes a recognition, unacceptable to the PP, of the mediation work of its partner party.
A few hours before the debate, the PNV had announced its support for the PP's proposal – which will be voted on this Wednesday – which guaranteed its victory. Among the Basque nationalists, resentment still persisted over the attacks received from the popular spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, when two weeks ago they refused to impose an urgent appearance of Pedro Sánchez on this issue. The PNV therefore warned that it would be very attentive to the tone of the PP's intervention before the plenary session. The one chosen by the people to defend their proposal was none other than Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.
The often flamboyant MP made a notable effort of restraint this time. And after greeting from the guest gallery the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition who attended the plenary session – Leopoldo López, the former mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma and a daughter of González Urrutia, among others – he opted for a vibrant defense of democracy in Venezuela against the regime's “totalitarian hunt”, seasoned with epic overtones. His talent as an orator ended up earning him the praise of a rival as fierce as Gabriel Rufián, of the ERC. The accusations against the government were limited to reproaching it for “dragging its feet” in the face of electoral fraud, which it took for granted, and calling for the search for a common position within the EU when Pedro Sánchez decided on its own to recognize the Palestinian state. Álvarez de Toledo was very far from the tweets broadcast the day before by his colleague Esteban González Pons, who denounced the granting of political asylum to the opposition leader. It was “doing Maduro a favor.”“, a statement from which other members of the PP leadership have privately distanced themselves.
The debut of the socialist Cristina Narbona raised protests within the PP by declaring that the current government “is the one that has never done the most for the Venezuelan people.” Narbona provided data to justify her statement: with Sánchez in power, Spain welcomed 125,000 Venezuelan exiles compared to the few 125 people hosted by the previous PP executive. Narbona considers that Álvarez de Toledo presented the recognition of González as “a magic wand” that would simply bring democracy to Venezuela, when five years ago The same thing has already been done with another opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, without any practical results. To José María Sánchez, from Vox, who had attacked the “calculated ambiguity” of the executive and the EU, he responded that even the European countries governed by the extreme right have not recognized González Urrutia.
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The most left-wing groups attacked the PP, accusing it of practicing “double standards” for not criticizing the party. “Coup d'état” against Evo Morales or the “genocide” in Palestine. Rufián, Javier Sánchez Serna, from Podemos, and Néstor Rego, from the BNG, called González Urrutia far-right. The ERC spokesman used statements made in recent years by PP leaders comparing Spain to a Bolivarian regime to ironize: “Why does the opposition leader of a Chavista dictatorship go into exile in another Chavista dictatorship?” Gerardo Pisarello, from Sumar, advocated for “diplomatic solutions that preserve peace and avoid social disintegration” and angered popular supporters by reproaching them: “What lessons are we going to receive from a party founded by ministers of the dictatorship?” “After coming down from the stage, when Pisarello passed in front of Tellado's seat, he began to reprimand him, calling him “an accomplice of Zapatero.” The president, Francina Armengol, called him to order.
The only group that has not finalized its position is the Junts. Representative Marta Madrenas strongly condemned the “brutal repression” of the Maduro regime. And from there, he took the big leap and equipped it for legal proceedings against the Catalan independence leaders.