The Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office opposes investigating Zapatero, which is straining the debate in Congress.

MadridVenezuela is part of Spanish politics, not only because of the thousands of Venezuelans residing in the country—especially in Madrid—but also because, beyond Gaza, it is one of the international issues that most strains the parliamentary sphere. This Thursday in the Congress of Deputies, it once again stood out with the extraordinary appearance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who explained his policy regarding the Venezuelan situation and defended not only the role of the Spanish State as a "bridge" with the country, but also the mediating role of former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has been criticized by the right and far right throughout the debate, despite the fact that the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office has opposed investigating him for his alleged links to Venezuelan drug trafficking. "I hope they apologize to him," reacted the Spanish Vice President, María Jesús Montero, afterward.

It is no secret that the former Spanish president is on the right-hand targetBut this Thursday they escalated their rhetoric even further. "Zapatero is an accomplice of the Chavista tyranny, he is a mediator for the party, and he has specialized in the trafficking of political prisoners," declared PP spokesperson Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo. Although the Spanish government, through Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, has supported the former Spanish president's role in the release of the Venezuelan political prisoners who recently arrived in Spain, the PP and Vox have accused him of being in the service of the dictatorship. While the debate was taking place in Congress, the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, took advantage of the situation. To find out with the opposition leader exiled in Spain, Edmundo González.

"Do you want to know what the Venezuelan opposition thinks of Zapatero? Do you know what María Corina Machado thinks?" Álvarez de Toledo challenged. "Delcy Rodríguez has referred to Zapatero as my prince"She added. Meanwhile, Pepa Millán, spokesperson for Vox, also accused him of collaborating with the dictatorial regime. In fact, she demanded explanations from the minister regarding another case currently in court, with Venezuelan ties: the Spanish government's bailout of Plus Ultra. "Did he pressure Zapatero for the bailout?" she asked.

Specifically, this Thursday the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office issued a sentence against of the admission of the complaint that motivated Hazte Oír against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. He was accused of drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime for his alleged "collaboration with the criminal structure" of Nicolás Maduro. The Public Prosecutor's Office considers that the actions do not constitute a crime in the slightest. In the document, to which Europa Press has had access, it argues that they "are based solely on journalistic information" and that others "are being investigated in other proceedings." It considers that it simply includes "unfounded conjectures, assumptions, and/or deductions that lack the slightest descriptive significance or any factual support."

The Socialist spokesperson, Patxi López, responded more vehemently to the right and far-right in the chamber, accusing them of knowing absolutely nothing. In fact, he pointed out that the former president had played a key role, along with Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Qatar, in the release of Spanish political prisoners in Venezuela: "Everyone recognizes it." "They're hypocrites," the socialist criticized. He also pointed out that more Venezuelan exiles arrived under Pedro Sánchez's government than during Mariano Rajoy's. ERC leader in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, seized on this fact to ask the PSOE to reflect: "They've been applying legislation tailored to this Venezuelan opposition for years, and everyone ends up shouting, 'Pedro Sánchez, you son of a bitch!' Look at that."

Foreign or domestic policy?

The chamber has become ideologically divided between right and left, while Junts has remained neutral. "It is true that Trump is violating international law and that Venezuela is a dictatorship," stated Marta Madrenas, who at times in her speech accused member states of applying a "double standard" in the "repression" of independence movements. The PP and Vox have defended Donald Trump and his intervention in Venezuela; while the Spanish government has highlighted the "danger" posed by the United States' violation of international law and mocked the PP's contradictions regarding Trump's support for Delcy Rodríguez instead of María Corina Machado: "The Spanish government didn't put him there." "Don't you have anything to say about Greenland?" added the minister, defending its right to choose to be part of Denmark and the EU. "Everything is connected," Albares has repeated on more than one occasion, also advocating for a transition and dialogue among Venezuelans to establish democracy.

The left wing of the PSOE, for its part, has accused the minister of "cowardice": Rufián criticized him for not speaking about the "kidnapping" of Maduro, while Podemos demanded that he break off relations and "isolate" the United States. "Cowardice is not staying to listen," Albares responded to the leader of the left, who was absent during his speech (the session lasted four hours).

Although it was a debate on foreign policy, all the parties accused each other of using international politics to serve their national interests. For Pepa Millán, what the Spanish government has done in the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Venezuela is try to mobilize the "far left" in the face of its falling poll numbers, while for Patxi López, the right constantly uses "the unusual card of ETA and Venezuela" to try to weaken Pedro Sánchez. Polarization reigns in all the debates in Congress.