The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize 2025, met this Tuesday in Paris with the president of the French Senate, Gérard Larcher, to talk about the democratic transition in the Latin American country and the need to establish an electoral calendar in 2026.
Machado and Larcher focused their conversation on “the democratic transition in Venezuela and the need to establish an electoral calendar this year,” the opposition leader’s communication services indicated on social networks.
As in her meeting yesterday with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Machado was accompanied by the political scientist and professor Pedro Urruchurtu, the advisor Isadora Zubillaga and the lawyer Antonio Ledezma.
At the meeting this Tuesday, on the part of France, were the vice president of the Senate, Loïc Hervé; and the vice presidents of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces commission, Pascal Allizard and Olivier Cadic, as well as the diplomatic advisor Hubert de Canson.
The “importance” of carrying out a “peaceful democratic transition that respects the will of its people” in Venezuela was also the focus of Macron’s meeting yesterday with Machado at the Elysee Palace, the French head of state said on his social networks.
Larcher supported the demand and described the permanence of Chavismo as a “denial of democracy” based on a stolen election.
To date, Venezuelan authorities have left the electoral issue in the background, after prioritizing the economy. On March 2, the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, indicated that it was not “peremptory” to define a date for elections in the country.
Machado plans to travel this Tuesday to the Dutch city of The Hague, where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is based, and from there he will travel to Spain on Thursday, where he will stay until Monday, according to sources close to him.
On Friday he must meet in Madrid with the president of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and with the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, sources from the political party in Madrid told EFE.
In addition, Machado will receive the Golden Key of the city from the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, on the same day.
