The PP focuses on Venezuela during Sánchez's anti-Trump summit

MadridWhile Pedro Sánchez received Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, with military honors in Barcelona, at the PP headquarters in Madrid, an alternative reception with honors was held for the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Dozens of popular affiliates, party officials, other anti-Chavist activists, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself gathered at the entrance of the headquarters on Génova street to applaud Machado's arrival. The new Nobel Peace laureate, in full European tour, allowed herself to be courted by the PP – in the afternoon she also had a meeting with the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal – while turning her back on the Spanish government, with whom she preferred not to meet.

Although PP sources deny that the visit was expressly timed to coincide with the weekend of the anti-Trump summit led by Sánchez in the Catalan capital, the message Feijóo wanted to send was clear. While the PP clearly sides with "freedom," the Spanish government "is not in that place," argues the popular president. "Spain's place is with María Corina Machado and not with the tyranny that pursues her," he stated at an event where there were hugs and more ovations – also for deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a friend of Machado and one of the PP leaders most committed to defending the cause of the Venezuelan opposition. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as usual, further raised the tone to highlight the contrast with the socialist leader.

"There are two photos: the meeting of the free world in the Puerta del Sol and another of narco-states around Sánchez," he emphasized from Brussels, referring to Brazil, Mexico, or Colombia, governed by the Latin American left. The Spanish president reproached the leader of the Madrid PP for insulting "entire nations" and apologized on behalf of Spanish society to the Brazilian president. This Saturday afternoon, the Madrid president will receive Machado at the headquarters of the Madrid presidency, located in the Puerta del Sol, and will award her the gold medal of the autonomy. She will also recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González with the region's international medal. Subsequently, Machado will likely have a mass gathering with a meeting with Venezuelans outside the government building.

In statements during the progressive summit with Brazil, Sánchez stressed that he was willing to meet with Machado, but that she "considered it not opportune." The Spanish president insisted that the doors of Moncloa are "open" to the opposition leader and reiterated his executive's position against "foreign interference," referring to Donald Trump's attack. Sánchez's stance, erected as the antithesis of the President of the United States, contrasts with the attempt to maintain balance with Trump by both Machado and the PP. From Génova, however, the anti-Chavista opposition leader defended the "military victory" over the regime of Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the year, with the intervention of the U.S., and called for "the total liberation of all Venezuelans" and the "dismantling of repressive structures.

Also avoiding confrontation with the President of the U.S., Feijóo called for "free elections with an explicit calendar as soon as possible" in Venezuela and the return of Machado, whom Trump scorned after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "Her party in Spain," Feijóo claimed about the opposition leader, is the PP, which tirelessly champions this cause despite the contradictions generated by Trump's forceful intervention in Venezuela and the decision to keep, as of today, the Chavista Delcy Rodríguez in power. This Friday afternoon, it will be the turn of the mayor of Madrid, the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida, to honor her with the presentation of the golden key of the city.