The former President of the Government of Spain Felipe González introduced María Corina Machado on Monday at an informative breakfast of Nueva Economía Fórum, where he praised her enthusiastically and stated that the struggle for freedom is not the property of an ideology, but of a deep conviction about what the values of democracy consist of.
The event, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Madrid, takes place at a time of political contrast in Spain. While González supported the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize 2025, President Pedro Sánchez was participating in a summit in Barcelona with leftist Latin American leaders such as Lula da Silva, Gustavo Petro, Claudia Sheinbaum, and Axel Kicillof, without having met with Machado at La Moncloa during her entire visit.
González did not hold back in his praise and acknowledged Machado with a leadership he described as non-mercenary, according to the video shared on social media by Comando Venezuela.
"You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize and much more, because you have exercised non-mercenary leadership: you have never asked for anything in return," stated the former president, who revealed that his attendance at the event was a personal commitment made when the Nobel was awarded to the opposition leader.
González also sent a warm remembrance to Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition presidential candidate who competed alongside Machado in the Venezuelan elections of July 2024 and who is currently in exile and convalescing in Madrid.
The former president was very critical of what he called the "robolution" and the government actions of "Maduro, Delcy, and her beloved brother," and lamented that paramilitary militias remain active, that the amnesty is not complete, and that "we are already late" for a clear electoral timeline in Venezuela.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, criticized Machado the same day following her statements to Radio Nacional de España for acting as the "ideological leader" of a faction on the extreme right and only meeting with the Popular Party and Vox.
Machado, however, preferred not to engage in that controversy and limited himself to expressing his desire that "Spain may soon have impeccable elections and accompany the expansion of freedom in Latin America," a statement that was applauded by the large representation of the PP at the event, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, along with the mayor of Madrid José Luis Martínez-Almeida and the member of parliament Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.
Machado also defended her roadmap for Venezuela at the forum: the release of more than 400 political prisoners, including 186 military personnel, the closure of torture centers, the return of exiles, and the total privatization of the state oil company PDVSA to attract foreign investment.
He also compared the future downfall of chavismo to the fall of the Berlin Wall and criticized former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for not having helped facilitate a democratic exit in the country.
The opposition leader also defended her decision to award the Nobel diploma to Donald Trump. "We, as Venezuelans, will always recognize the only head of state who has risked the lives of his citizens for our freedom. We would not be moving towards democracy today if it weren't for Donald Trump," she asserted.
The event this Monday is the last of an intense tour in Madrid that began with the awarding of the Golden Key of the City Council of Madrid and continued with the Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid and a gathering of up to 200,000 Venezuelans at the Puerta del Sol.
The former president Felipe González concluded his presentation with a phrase that captured the spirit of the meeting: This platform is yours as I hope that very soon the future will be as well."
Filed under: