Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, on a tour of South America, has today said that Venezuela cannot be considered a democratic country because it has political prisoners.
Back in Spain, of course, many people consider the pro-independence Catalan leaders who have been held in pretrial detention for months now to be themselves political prisoners. Many people have taken to social media to comment on this apparent contradiction, including the political scientist Ramón Cotarelo:
Translation: Venezuela isn't a democracy, according to Pedro Sánchez, because it's got political prisoners. Spain is one though, even having political prisoners. The secret is how much nerve you've got.
It seems a very suitable criterion to me to know whether a state is democratic or not. Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners"
Very good analysis by Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners". But it doesn't have to cross the Atlantic...
Pedro Sánchez: "There's no democracy in Venezuela because there are political prisoners". Let's change "Venezuela" for "Spain" and we've got it... Germany and Belgium have taken charge of demonstrating that in Spain there's isn't democracy either.
Just the same as in Spain. Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners"