'It is fake news that Hungary vetoed the EU declaration on Venezuela', Ministry of Foreign Affairs says

"It is fake news that Hungary vetoed the declaration"

– Máté Paczolay, Spokesman of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in response to a question from Telex about Politico's information based on two separate sources, according to which the Hungarian government vetoed a joint EU statement on the disputed results of the Venezuelan elections.

On Monday, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell issued a statement on the Venezuelan presidential election, saying that “The results of the elections have not been verified and cannot be considered as representative of the will of the people of Venezuela until all the official records from polling stations are published and verified.”

In a new statement on Tuesday, written in the first person singular, he said that President Nicolás Maduro had been declared the winner on the basis of "partial, unverifiable" results, and that this could not be recognised, and added that the figures released by the opposition differed significantly from those officially announced.

The statements were issued only on behalf of the High Representative, which is usually the case when one or more governments disagree with the text. According to Politico, Borrell released the second document after realising that the Hungarian government was upholding its veto.

In light of the article, we contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ask if they had indeed used a veto and, if so, why. In his reply, Paczolay wrote that

"We waited until we received the reports from Venezuela and after studying them, we joined the joint statement of the European Union".