Spain: Congress votes in favor of the Government recognizing González Urrutia as president-elect of Venezuela

The Congress of Deputies, Spain's lower house, approved an initiative to recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect of Venezuela.

This proposal, promoted by the Popular Party (PP), obtained the affirmative vote of 177 legislators, by 164 against and one abstention. It is not binding, which means that it is a mere request to the government of Pedro Sánchez to certify the Venezuelan opposition leader as president-elect.

The PP received the backing of VOX (conservatives) and three other minority parties, including the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which sustains Sanchez in power with its votes.

Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, a PP lawmaker, urged Sanchez to "work so that on January 10 Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is sworn in and the one who leaves for exile is Nicolas Maduro."

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), the president's party, opposed, receiving a hard blow in foreign policy. That same decision was taken by Sumar, a party integrated in the government of Sanchez, alleging that Gonzalez Urrutia is a member of the extreme right that yields to the "interests of the United States."

A day before Wednesday's vote, a crowd of Venezuelans - including former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma and Cristina González, González Urrutia's daughter - demonstrated at the gates of the Congress of Deputies to ask Sánchez to recognize the opposition leader as the election winner and president-elect.