MADRID (Reuters) – The Spanish government has asked the Venezuelan authorities to offer ‘democratic guarantees’ in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Monday.

The guarantees must be agreed upon by Venezuelans themselves and if those guarantees are provided, the Spanish government would back the electoral process, she told a news conference.

The European Union said on Friday President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian government had so far not met “minimum conditions” to allow it send observers to the election, scheduled on Dec. 6. Venezuela’s opposition has split on whether to participate in the elections.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip)

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