During a debate on the situation in Honduras in the European Parliament this afternoon, Spanish GUE/NGL MEP Willy Meyer, who travelled to Honduras immediately after the recent coup d'état, reiterated his condemnation of the military coup and demanded the immediate restitution of elected President José Manuel Zelaya and the return to normal democracy.

Willy Meyer insisted on the need for the European Union, "like the OAS (Organization of American States), and the United Nations, to put pressure on those who organised the coup to restore President Zelaya to power within one week, the ultimatum set by Zelaya himself for his return to Honduras if the talks initiated by Costa Rica had failed." MEP Meyer demanded "that negotiations on the EU-Central America association agreement be suspended for as long as democracy has not been re-established Honduras".

MEP Meyer launched a declaration yesterday to gather the signatures of other Members of the European Parliament. To date, over 50 parliamentarians have pledged their support.

During the debate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (GUE/NGL, France) said that "our pacifist principles should not mean that we turn a blind eye to the authors of this military coup nor our backs on the democratically elected government in Honduras." In such cases, he said, the violence of those rebels who are fighting for the return of the president is legitimate and that of those who perpetrated the military coup criminal.

"The personal mobilisation of Central and South American heads of state to support the unconditional restitution of José Manuel Zelaya is proof that the whole continent wants to put the period of coups d'état and dictatorships firmly behind them," said MEP Mélenchon.

He called on the EU to break off all relations and negotiations, political and commercial, with Micheletti regime, to demand the unconditional return to power of President Zelaya and to insist that the Obama administration do the same. "In this way, we show that we are true to the principles that we so often evoke and can demand that others apply them," he concluded.

GUE/NGL Press

Gianfranco Battistini +32 475 64 66 28
Gay Kavanagh + 32 473 842 320
www.guengl.eu