 During a Europarliament session on 8 June 2016 concerning Venezuela, Mélenchon criticized what he called European hypocrisy, comparing European tolerance of Saudi Arabian rule and intolerance of Venezuelan rule.In 2018, he affirmed that the countries that denounced the 2018 presidential elections were "henchmen of the United States", insisting that the date of the elections was agreed upon with the approval of former Spanish Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero and rejecting that the international community did not recognize the electoral process.Following the killing of major general Qasem Soleimani, Mélenchon tweeted