On the outcome of the Constitutional Referendum in Venezuela Sahra Wagenknecht, Member of the European Parliament and Executive Board Member of the party Die Linke declares:

The negative outcome of the constitutional referendum in Venezuela is regrettable, because it constitutes a setback to the envisioned change of the Venezuelan society for which Hugo Chávez and his government have been striving. However, the outcome - by a minimal margin - does not mean that a socialist orientation of the country has failed to manifest once and for all times. On the contrary: The progressive forces in Venezuela will now have to work even more intensively at convincing the population that a new orientation of the country is to their own benefit and advantage. That this has failed to be accomplished at this point is certainly also the result of the massive international media campaign which, against better judgement, has presented the proposed changes of the constitution to be a way leading directly to dictatorship.

The outcome of the referendum shows the very opposite, however, and underlines once more what has been the basis of the changes Venezuela has undergone in the last few years: an undisputable democratic process in which the population decides. It is to be hoped that those who regard Hugo Chávez to be an autocratic dictator, will now finally shut up and in the future will refrain from further destabilization attempts of his democratically elected government.

Sahra Wagenknecht

Brussels/Berlin, 3 December 2007