Heading for a crash

VENEZUELA’S opposition-controlled parliament, the first in nearly 16 years, has been sitting for less than a month. It has been an eventful period. The opposition gained and lost its two-thirds majority; the country’s Supreme Court declared that all its acts would be null and void, then relented. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, overhauled his government and seeks new powers to tackle an “economic emergency”. The Central Bank published vital economic indicators for the first time in more than a year. What is not clear is whether all this is leading the country away from an economic and political crash or more rapidly towards one.

Some signs are encouraging. The confrontation between the National Assembly and the Supreme Court ended after three opposition deputies, who had taken their seats in defiance of a ruling by the court, agreed to step aside while an investigation takes place into charges of electoral fraud in their state. This denied the opposition a two-thirds majority, but allowed the regime to recognise parliament’s legitimacy. On January 15th Mr Maduro, a former bus driver, delivered his state of the union speech before a hostile legislature for the first time. The mocking rebuttal by Henry Ramos Allup, parliament’s new president, was broadcast live—another first.