EU states increase pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro for election.
Germany, France and Spain have given the controversial president of Venezuela an eight-day deadline on Saturday. Should Nicolas Maduro not start a new election during this time, the German government is ready to recognize the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, said the deputy government spokeswoman Martina Fietz.
Similar comments were made by French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. “The people of Venezuela must be able to decide freely and safely about their future,” Fietz wrote in the short message service Twitter. Should Maduro let the deadline pass, Guaido, as a transitional president, should initiate such a political process. On Friday EU diplomats in Brussels had indicated that a joint statement of the 28 EU Member States in this direction was in the vote.
Maduro had officially started his second term on January 10th. However, most of the opposition boycotted the presidential election of May 2018 and did not acknowledge the outcome. On Wednesday, opposition parliamentary president Guaido declared himself interim president in mass protests. The US and a number of other Western and Latin American countries recognized him immediately.
