The president of the PP and candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on Tuesday conveyed to the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, his firm backing for the holding of presidential elections in Venezuela in 2027, as the party detailed in an official statement.
This support came in the context of a videoconference in which Feijóo also expressed his wish for both to be able to meet up at the upcoming Ibero-American Summit, given that, according to the “popular” party, both the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, “are on their way out.”
During the exchange, the PP leader showed his “satisfaction” at María Corina Machado’s return to Venezuela, a country in which, in his view, “she must be there to lead political change and the rebuilding of the country.”
Democratic transition and institutional reforms
In the conversation, both analyzed the steps considered essential to steer the country toward a democratic transition. Among them, they placed front and center the release of all political prisoners and the renewal of the main institutions, particularly the Supreme Tribunal and the National Electoral Council, so that “free and fair elections” can be held “to end the long dictatorship and begin national reconstruction,” as the PP specified.
Feijóo insisted on the advisability of setting the date of the presidential elections as soon as possible. In the view of the PP leadership, that would serve, “on the one hand, to give hope to Venezuelans after so many years of suffering and, on the other, to accelerate the necessary reforms for the holding of guaranteed elections.”
The communiqué underlines that the Galician leader thus renewed his “total commitment to the Venezuelan democratic cause” and pledged that, if he manages to secure the majority trust of Spaniards to govern, “he will activate the European Union to support the process of democratization and reconstruction of Venezuela.”
For her part, María Corina Machado thanked the political support received both from the PP and the EPP in her struggle for freedom, in addition to the welcome provided by Spain to the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have been forced to leave their country.
Feijóo also emphasized that, under his mandate, Spain will again relate to Venezuela "with decency, in the face of the complicity that Pedro Sánchez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have demonstrated with the dictatorship", according to the version spread by the Partido Popular.
Feijóo's international agenda with allied leaders
Beyond his conversation with María Corina Machado, Feijóo has other contacts at the highest level scheduled with leaders of Ibero-America and Europe considered strategic allies for Spain.
In this context, the leadership of the PP advanced that the party's president expects to hold, in the coming hours, separate conversations with the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, and with the President of Chile, José Antonio Kast, with the aim of strengthening political dialogue and coordination on matters of common interest.