The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize has been awarded (again) to the Venezuelan opposition, in what appears to be a new victory for the alliance between the EPP and the radical right of the Chamber. The recognition for freedom of thought “is awarded to María Corina Machado and the president-elect Edmundo González Urrutia for their courageous fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela”, announced the president of the Assembly, Roberta Metsola.
The Venezuelan opposition, which had already won in 2017, had been nominated by the EPP and Giorgia Meloni’s ECR, but in the end the choice was also supported by the Patriots of Viktor Orban and Matteo Salvini who had initially proposed Elon Musk. The liberals of Renew Europe had pointed to Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, two feminist, pacifist and non-partisan movements that strive to bring together Israeli and Palestinian women to spread a call for peace and a strong message of hope. The radical left The Left wanted the prize for Palestinian journalists.
In the end, the conference of presidents chose the Venezuelans, a topic on which there has already been convergence between right-wing forces in the past. Still on Venezuela in September, for the first time a majority made up of the People’s Party, ECR, Patriots and even the Europe of the sovereign nations of the German AfD, had passed a resolution in which they asked Europe to recognize the leader of the opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, as the winner of the elections and therefore the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela, sparking protests from socialists and liberals. The votes in the Conference of Presidents are not public, but clearly the same thing happened on the Sakharov.
For his part, Gonzalez Urrutia thanked Europe for its “deep solidarity” with the Venezuelan people. “Above all, this award embodies the profound solidarity of the European peoples with the Venezuelan people and their struggle to regain democracy”, declared the 75-year-old opponent of President Nicolás Maduro, who has been living in Spain where he went claiming to fear for his life.
An arrest warrant was pending against him, as the public prosecutor had opened an investigation for “disobedience to the law”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of office” and “sabotage”. “The fight is not over”, continued González Urrutia, who also expressed “gratitude, pride and admiration” for his compatriots, who “with the utmost civic sense, courage and determination, opposed themselves to years and continue to oppose a regime that systematically violates human rights.”
According to the opposition, González Urrutia would have won with over 67% of the votes, while Maduro, the incumbent president, was officially declared the winner with 52% of the votes. The official results were not recognized by the European Union, the United States and several Latin American countries, which asked – in vain – the Venezuelan government to produce the minutes of the polling stations in order to verify them.