Bitter dispute within Spanish left over recognition of Maduro’s ‘victory’

The left-wing Sumar platform, a junior partner in Spain’s Socialist-led government, suffered an ideological split this week after its former leader and current Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz called for the “recognition of the results” of Venezuela’s contested elections, against the will of many other platform members.

Sumar is a minority partner in the government of Pedro Sanchez (PSOE, S&D), with whom it shares the country’s ministerial portfolios.

A few hours after Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the victory of Nicolás Maduro on Monday (29 July), in statements to Spanish media, Díaz called for his victory to be recognised, although prestigious international institutions, including the Carter Center, an observer in these elections, expressed concerns about the transparency of the controversial election. 

“The first thing is to recognise the election results, which is what democrats all over the world do, and secondly, simply: in the face of doubts, transparency, transparency, and transparency”, stated the former leader of Sumar, a platform made up of a dozen radical left-wing parties, currently the fourth largest force in the Spanish parliament. 

However, the Spanish government’s position, recently expressed by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares (PSOE/S&D), is to demand “full transparency” from Caracas, and a “verification” of the election results, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported. 

Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wrote in an opinion piece published Thursday (1 August) in the Wall Street Journal that she fears for her life, while again denouncing Maduro for “electoral fraud”. 

“Mr Maduro did not win Sunday’s Venezuelan presidential election. He lost in a landslide to Edmundo González Urrutia (the opposition candidate), with 67% of the vote to 30%. I know this is true because I can prove it”, Machado said. 

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on Monday proclaimed Maduro as president, with 51.2% of the votes, compared to 44.2% for González Urrutia. 

The United States also does not recognize the elections’ results, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement this week that there is “overwhelming evidence” that Edmundo González won by “the majority of the votes”. 

One of the main points of contention is that the official vote count has not yet been published, although a part of the radical left in Spain initially rushed to recognise the validity of the official data.

In this complex context, Díaz’s words on Monday (29 July) provoked a political tsunami prompting some of the formations that make up the left-wing platform, including the regional party Más Madrid, to distance themselves from her initial pro-Maduro stance. 

In a message on X, the leader of Más Madrid and current health minister, Mónica García, called for full transparency in the electoral process in Venezuela, while demanding that the will of the Venezuelan people be respected, EFE reported. 

“Guarantees of verification and transparency are necessary, a basic condition in any part of the world, as demanded by presidents (Gabriel) Boric (Chile), (Gustavo) Petro (Colombia), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and international organisations”, Más Madrid said in a statement. 

Maduro thanked Díaz but later deleted the post

The initial pro-Maduro reaction from much of Spain’s far-left was immediately seized upon by the Venezuelan president, who thanked Diaz but then deleted it, perhaps to avoid embarrassing Sánchez’s partners in the executive.  

“On behalf of the Venezuelan people we thank the Government of Spain for recognising the 2024 Presidential Elections held yesterday in our country,” Maduro wrote in a post on X on Monday, although he deleted the post shortly afterwards. 

The left-wing party Izquierda Unida, a member of Sumar, was also embroiled in controversy after initially calling on the Venezuelan opposition on Monday to recognise Maduro’s victory. However, the party’s national coordinator, Antonio Maillo, was forced to soften the initial support for the Venezuelan president.

Meanwhile, left-wing Podemos, a former ally of Sumar, was quick to express its support for Maduro. 

“More than a thousand international observers have participated in the elections. The people have spoken and their will must be respected. The (Spanish and international) right only admits democracy when it wins, and that is unacceptable” said Podemos leader Ione Belarra, a former ally of Díaz. 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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