The Spanish Congress has voted to recognize Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia as the President-Elect of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, coming after the European country took the opposition’s candidate in for asylum following various weeks of unrest and turmoil on the South American nation after controversial elections took place.
On the eleventh of September of 2024, Congress decided through 177 votes in favor, 164 against and 1 abstention to recognize the MUD’s party candidate (Democratic Unity Roundtable by its Spanish acronym) as the winner of the elections, arguments on the decision are given on the approved text, “the recognition is based on failure by the Venezuelan authorities to publish the result tallies and the due time and manner.”
The text also went on to list the publication of the tallies by the opposition and official pronouncements by international organizations such as the Carter Center as further reasons for their decision. The movement to recognize Urrutia was proposed by the PP (Popular Party) and widely supported by the right wing parties and nationalists, but opposed by the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party.
However, the vote is not backed by the prime minister Pedro Sanchez, who has called not to recognize winners in the election due to irregularities in the process, and remains insistent that the CNE (National Electoral Council) publish the tallies and demonstrate the results in a reliable form.
Urrutia has been given status as a asylee by Sanchez, who insisted it was a “gesture of humanity, a humanitarian civil compromise by the Spanish society,” after the governing police department in Venezuela enacted a search warrant for the former Venezuelan ambassador to Argentina, Belgium and the United Kingdom. More arrests have been made by the national guard towards protestors and political figures as Maduro’s government continues to be presented with amounting pressure to publish the tallies of the elections by the international community, as well as monetary sanctions to high functioning members of the government and their families.
