Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani had "long" phone talks with Venezuela's barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado Tuesday in which he voiced "solidarity" with the country after disputed weekend polls returned socialist president Nicolas Maduro to office after 11 years in power.
"Long phone call with @MariaCorinaYA, leader of the opposition to the Maduro regime in #Venezuela," Tajani wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"I expressed my solidarity and closeness to the Venezuelan people, hoping that the values linked to freedom and democracy can triumph," Tajani added.
Venezuela’s electoral body has declared President Maduro the winner of Sunday's election with 51 percent of the vote against 44 percent received by challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
An exit poll from Edison Research predicted Gonzalez would win 65 percent of the vote, while Maduro would take 31 percent.
The opposition is claiming an overwhelming victory.
A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies including the UN, have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release voting records from individual polling stations.
US, the EU and Britain have expressed doubt over the transparency of the election.
