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With the Sakharov Prize, the best distinction of the European Union for Human Rights, María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition chief in Venezuela and her candidate within the July presidential elections, had been honored.
“Edmundo and María continued to battle for a free, truthful, and peaceable transition of energy and fearlessly defended the values which can be so expensive to thousands and thousands of Venezuelans and this Parliament: justice, democracy, and the rule of regulation,” mentioned European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
“The Parliament stands with the folks of Venezuela and with María and Edmundo of their wrestle for the democratic way forward for their nation,” she added. “We’re satisfied that Venezuela and democracy will prevail ultimately.”
Following the controversial re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, 75-year-old Edmundo González Urrutia took refuge in Spain, and 56-year-old María Corina Machado lives underground.
The 2 opposition figures had been proposed by the European Individuals’s Occasion (right-wing, the primary political drive within the European Parliament).
The French delegation of the Socialist and Democrats group, which had proposed awarding the prize to the Israeli group “Ladies Wage Peace” and the Palestinian group “Ladies of the Solar” who work collectively for peace within the Center East, spoke of “a missed alternative to advertise peace and reconciliation” within the Center East.
The third finalist this yr was Gubad Ibadoghlu, an economist and activist detained in Azerbaijan.
The European far-right, which incorporates the Patriots group led by Jordan Bardella of the French Nationwide Rally occasion of Marine Le Pen, had proposed, unsuccessfully, to award the prize to billionaire Elon Musk for his contribution to “freedom of expression.”
The Sakharov Prize is awarded yearly to people and organizations defending Human Rights and basic freedoms. The prize, accompanied by a financial award of fifty,000 euros, bears the title of Soviet dissident and nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, who was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
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