Members of the European Parliament have adopted a resolution sending a strong message condemning Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela after it stole the country's presidential elections.

The resolution also recognises former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who has fled to Spain since the elections, as the rightful President-elect of the country.

Speaking on behalf of the ECR Group during the related European Parliament plenary debate on Tuesday 17 September, Italian MEP Carlo Fidanza said: “On 28 July, the Venezuelan people rebelled against the narco-communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and elected Edmundo González Urrutia as their legitimate president, after the leader of the democratic opposition, María Corina Machado, had been shamefully expelled from the electoral contest.” He emphasised the lack of transparency and international observation in the recent elections, branding them as “an election stolen by the regime.”

Fidanza also exposed the left for what he described as “complicit silence.” He argued that “every extra day granted to Maduro is a favour to those who want to turn all of Latin America into the fifth column of Russia, China and Iran.”

“We have a duty to raise the pressure, to launch sanctions against Maduro and the other leaders of the regime, and to recognise the election of the only legitimate president, Edmundo González. And we must do this as the European Union, because unilateral initiatives would be less effective and perhaps even more risky”, said Fidanza in relation to the resolution.

“We have a duty to act now, because between now and 10 January the constitutional process for the proclamation of the new president must take place”, Fidanza continued.

“We must do this with symbolic initiatives, and that is also why our group will propose awarding the Sakharov Prize to Edmundo González, and with him to María Corina Machado and the whole of democratic Venezuela”, Fidanza concluded.

MEPs voted to adopt the resolution today with a majority of 309 votes, with 201 votes against and 12 abstentions.