MEPs recognise Gonzalez as Venezuela’s president-elect

(ANSA) – CARACAS, 19 SEPTEMBER – The European Parliament has recognized Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the “legitimate and democratically elected president of the country” and Maria Corina Machado as the “leader of democratic forces”. Furthermore, it strongly condemned Caracas’ arrest warrant against González. “The EU should do everything possible to ensure that Edmundo González Urrutia, the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela, can take office on 10 January 2025”. This is stated in the text of a non-binding resolution adopted today with 309 votes in favour, 201 against and 12 abstentions. In the same document, the European Parliament “condemns in no uncertain terms and firmly rejects the electoral fraud orchestrated by the National Electoral Council, which is controlled by the regime and which refused to make the result public”. Parliament urges the EU to reinstate sanctions against members of the National Electoral Council and calls for an extension to apply targeted sanctions under the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime against Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle. Finally, MEPs urge regional actors and the international community to exert maximum pressure on the Maduro regime and his inner circle to accept the democratic will of the Venezuelan people by recognising Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president. Otherwise, Parliament warns that there could be a new exodus of migrants to other countries in the region, similar to the one that has led almost eight million Venezuelans to flee the country in recent years. (ANSA).