The European Parliament will debate the political crisis in Venezuela

The European Parliament will debate the crisis in Venezuela on Tuesday at the request of the European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Patriots and Renew Europe groups, parliamentary sources told Efe, and a resolution on the matter will be voted on Thursday.

Political groups in the European Parliament They are preparing their contributions to the debate and the resolution that they will vote on in plenary session next week on the political crisis in Venezuela.with discrepancies over the recognition of the opposition candidate in the last presidential elections, Edmundo González Urrutia.

In its proposal, the EPP Group recognises González Urrutia as the “legitimately and democratically” elected president of Venezuela; it also recognises María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, since “she was elected in the primaries of the Unitary Platform in 2023 with 92.35% of the votes”.

It therefore calls on “all EU Member States to Recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as legitimate and democratically elected president from Venezuela».

And it calls on “the EU and its Member States to do everything possible to ensure that the legitimate and democratically elected president can take office on 10 January 2025, in accordance with the Venezuelan Constitution.”

Likewise, it “strongly condemns and fully rejects the electoral fraud orchestrated by the CNE controlled by the regime, which refused to make public the official result through the minutes of each voting table despite repeated calls from the international community.”

They will request an international arrest warrant against Maduro

At the same time, the EPP Group proposal fully supports the investigations by the International Criminal Court and the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission into the “widespread crimes and acts of repression by the Venezuelan regime” and calls on the EU to support investigations, currently being considered under the Rome Statute, into alleged crimes against humanity, in order to hold those responsible to account.

«Purges the EU and its Member States to request an international arrest warrant against Nicolás Maduro for crimes against humanity for all the serious violations of human rights he committed.”

The motion condemns “in the strongest possible terms the murders, harassment, rapes and arrests against the democratic opposition to the regime and the Venezuelan people; it demands the immediate and unconditional release of all persons detained politically and arbitrarily, in particular minors.”

Recalling that in May 2024 the EU lifted sanctions as a gesture of goodwill against members of the CNE, the European Popular Party stressed that this action “had no positive effect” and called for them to be reinstated.

Finally, it calls on regional actors to exert all possible pressure on the Maduro regime and its inner circle to accept the democratic will of the Venezuelan people and also to recognise González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela.

The EPP Group in the European Parliament is convinced that if there is no peaceful transfer of power and restoration of democracy on 10 January 2025, there will be a new exodus of migrants to other countries in the region, similar to that which has led nearly 8 million Venezuelans to flee the country in recent years.