“The democratic quality of Venezuela has not improved”

The High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union (EU), the Spanish Josep Borrellsaid this Friday thatand the European Union does not recognize the “democratic legitimacy” of the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela because “he says he won the elections without proving it.”

At a press conference in Madrid, the head of European diplomacy recalled that the EU cannot recognise governments or states because they are a power of the member states, but what it can do is “recognise the democratic legitimacy of those who hold power, territorial control, the Army, the police…”

That control, “in fact, was Maduro’s before the elections and remains Maduro’s after the elections. But We do not consider him a person who can claim democratic legitimacy. of the power he holds,” he added.

Borrell was responding to the proposal of the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament, which on Friday urged EU Member States to recognise opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the “legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela” and to do “everything possible” to ensure that he can take office on 10 January 2025, by submitting a motion for a resolution that it hopes will be approved by the European Parliament.

.@JosepBorrellF He does not assess whether Venezuela is a dictatorship, although he says that its “democratic quality has not improved.” https://t.co/Xows9FK4JD pic.twitter.com/KP8TfarR11

— Europa Press TV (@europapress_tv) September 13, 2024

International arrest warrant against Maduro

It is expected that on Tuesday The crisis in Venezuela is being debated in the European Parliament and a resolution is to be voted on Thursday calling on “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.”

At the same time, it calls for targeted sanctions to be imposed on Maduro and his inner circle, their families and all those responsible for human rights violations in the country.

On this matter, Borrell recalled that Recognitions “may have symbolic value,” but “they do not change reality.”

The head of European diplomacy declined to comment on the statements made by the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who on Friday described the regime of Nicolás Maduro as a “dictatorship” and criticized the “limitation of fundamental rights” suffered by the opposition.

Meeting between Borrell and Edmundo González

However, for the head of European diplomacy, the Venezuelan presidential elections on July 28 “have shown that “The democratic quality of Venezuela, which we already knew, has not improved”.

Asked about the possibility of meeting with the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalezexiled in Madrid since Sunday, Borrell was open to meeting him, although he recalled that he has been in contact with the opposition leader since before he left Venezuela for Spain.

“We have invited him to come to the (EU) Foreign Affairs Council,” Borrell said, without giving details of González’s response or the date on which that could occur.

The dialogue with González, which he will continue to maintain in the coming days, as well as with the opposition that remains in Venezuela and that “needs our support” due to the “repressive dynamic” of the Maduro regime that “worries us all,” and from which we can only get out – in his opinion – with “international pressure and in particular that which can be exerted by Latin American countries, which are closer.”