‘No democratic legitimacy’: EU rejects Maduro’s Venezuela election win claim

Nicolás Maduro at a rally to celebrate the results of last month's presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela on 28 August. Photograph: Fausto Torrealba/Reuters

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said its members have given up hope of Nicolás Maduro producing evidence that he won Venezuela’s election and will not accept his legitimacy as president-elect.

Addressing reporters after EU foreign ministers held a video call with Edmundo González, the former diplomat widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 28 July vote, Borrell announced: “The European Council decided that Maduro has no democratic legitimacy as president.”