The People's Party (PP) is walking a tightrope in the Venezuelan crisis: from defending Trump to expressing discomfort over Delcy Rodríguez.

MadridVenezuela has been a recurring theme for the Spanish right for years, which has made its staunch support for the opponents of Nicolás Maduro's regime one of its favorite battlegrounds against the Spanish government. The People's Party (PP) has always criticized the Socialist Party (PSOE) for its balancing act on this issue and repeatedly accused Pedro Sánchez of having "whitewashed" and "protected" the Venezuelan "dictator" by not directly opposing him. However, Donald Trump's unilateral attack on Venezuela and his endorsement of Delcy Rodríguez, the Chavista vice president, as a way to lead a transition has placed the PP in an uncomfortable position, forcing them to perform their own balancing act. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party rejected the proposal for Rodríguez, but at the same time avoided criticizing the US president. The PP, which feels more comfortable framing the issue within the context of Spanish politics, has instead focused its attacks on the PSOE.

"For us, the future and hope of Venezuela do not lie with Delcy Rodríguez [...], who is part of this criminal regime as both a protagonist and an accomplice," the Popular Party leader Cuca Gamarra emphasized this Monday morning on TVE. The PP's Deputy Secretary for Institutional Regeneration reiterated the position Feijóo expressed to X from the outset: It should be the "legitimate president" of Venezuela, the opposition leader Edmundo González, as well as the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, since they are the ones with the "legitimacy" to do so. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in an interview on Antena 3, also defended Machado's leadership, who was dismissed by Trump as a possible successor to Maduro. The president of the Community of Madrid, however, justified the United States' priority as ending "the drug trafficking networks from which Maduro's inner circle has profited" rather than defining a political solution. "If a process is initiated that guarantees free elections, there will be years in history not enough time to thank everyone for this operation," stated Ayuso, who defended Trump's actions because "there is no other way." According to the leader of the Madrid PP, the US move cannot be considered a violation of sovereignty because Venezuela "is not a state right now" but rather "a narco-dictatorship" that has been "violating" the rights of Venezuelans for years. "It becomes sovereign when there are guarantees, not when it is a narco-state," she emphasized. The PP leadership, as usual, has not dared to go that far. While Gamarra called Maduro's arrest by the US "good news" and a "historic milestone," she admitted to having "doubts" about the legality of the action. "We must reaffirm our democratic values, which are a state governed by the rule of law and international law, which must be respected," said Gamarra, who pointed out that existing "doubts" must be "clarified." As for Vox, its leader, Santiago Abascal, also focused his messages on X, pointing to Sánchez as an "accomplice" of Delcy Rodríguez, although he did not question the initial support of Trump, one of his allies in the global far right, for the Chavista vice president. The FAES think tank, led by José María Aznar, did question the US president, rejecting the "colonization" of Venezuela and calling Trump's doubts about the Chavista opposition "clumsy."

Offensive against Sánchez

The Popular Party leadership was quick to turn this uncomfortable issue for the PP into a weapon against Sánchez. Gamarra emphasized that the Spanish government "has no moral legitimacy to speak about international law" when it has "protected" Maduro and has alleged ties to Delcy Rodríguez. It's normal that the PSOE is "comfortable" with this situation, insisted the PP spokesperson in the Senate, Alicia García, at a press conference. "It hides the secrets of the Sánchez administration," she asserted regarding the politician who is supposed to replace Maduro. García then attacked former Socialist President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whom she called "Maduro's ambassador in Spain" and a "mediator" in alleged shady dealings linked to the Venezuelan regime. The Popular Party spokesperson in the Senate has announced a new commission of inquiry into "the SEPI black box," the state investment arm that "could have been used to pay favors to the dictatorship," as well as the appearance of Vice Presidents María Jesús Montero and Sara Aagesen in an extraordinary plenary session on January 15 to explain these matters.