The Spanish Congress approved on Wednesday the recognition of opposition leader Edmundo González as president-elect of Venezuela, who arrived in Madrid on Sunday after receiving political asylum from the government of Pedro Sánchez.
The proposal, put forward by the main opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, was adopted by 177 deputies to 164, and calls on Sánchez’s government to recognise the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González over President Nicolás Maduro in the July elections in Venezuela.
The report also calls on Sánchez’s government to “lead the recognition of Edmundo González in European institutions and international bodies, with the aim of ensuring that he takes office as the new president of Venezuela on January 10, 2025.”
However, the approval is symbolic, because it does not oblige Pedro Sánchez’s government, who earlier ruled out recognizing González as president.
During the debate, which began on Tuesday, PP MP Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo said that the initiative serves “to boost the transition,” and asked Sánchez to “work so that on January 10 Edmundo González Urrutia is sworn in and the one who leaves for exile is Nicolás Maduro.”
For her part, Socialist MP Cristina Narbona recalled the precedent of Juan Guaidó, “whom we recognised, and it was of no use.”
Sanchez confirms that he will not recognize Edmundo Gonzalez as president
Earlier, during a visit to China, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that granting asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader and electoral rival of Nicolás Maduro, Edmundo González Urrutia, is a “gesture of humanity.”
“Asylum is nothing more than a gesture of humanity, a humanitarian civil commitment of Spanish society and by extension of its government to people who are unfortunately suffering persecution and repression,” he said at a press conference in Shanghai.
The opposition candidate arrived in Spain on Monday to request asylum after a month in hiding following the presidential elections on July 28.
“I made this decision thinking about Venezuela,” so that “things can change” and “a new era can be built for Venezuela,” the 75-year-old diplomat explained from Madrid.
The electoral authority declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections, but the opposition claims fraud in the vote, which is not recognized by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.
Since González’s arrival in Madrid, the Spanish government has been under pressure from the opposition to recognise him as Venezuela’s president-elect, but Sánchez has avoided changing his position.
Sanchez seeks common position in the EU regarding the situation in Venezuela
“The Spanish government has been clear since the elections. We have asked for the minutes to be published, we have not recognised Nicolás Maduro’s victory,” Sánchez explained.
“And we are doing something very important: working for unity in the European Union so that this work for the unity of the European Union allows us to have room for mediation between now and the end of the year so that we can find a solution that conveys the democratic will expressed at the polls by the Venezuelan people,” he insisted.
Sanchez also said he did not address the issue of Venezuela during his meeting on Monday in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has close ties with Maduro.
“We are not talking about this issue,” said Sánchez, who, according to the Spanish press, will meet with González Urrutia upon his return to Madrid.
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