The European Union announces that it will respond "proportionally" to the expulsion of its ambassador by Daniel Ortega

The Vice President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, intervenes in the La Toja Forum this past Saturday.Gustavo de la Paz (Europa Press)

On Saturday late in Europe, the EU ambassador to Nicaragua, Bettina Muscheidt, boarded a plane to leave the Central American country.

That day she was completing the term that the Government of Daniel Ortega had given her to leave when she declared her persona non grata.

Less than 24 hours later, the reaction from the EU has arrived.

With a restrained tone, the EU External Action Service (EEAS) led by the Spaniard Josep Borrell has announced that it "will respond in a firm and proportionate manner" to the diplomatic crisis opened by Managua.

Nicaraguan authorities informed Muscheidt last Wednesday that he had three days to leave the country.

In Brussels, nobody confirmed the news officially, although it was an open secret, as this newspaper published last Thursday.

In reality, Borrell's team was calibrating the response so as not to further damage already frayed relationships.

“The European Union regrets and rejects the unjustified and unilateral decision.

The EU also deeply regrets the disproportionate and unjustified unilateral decision taken on Friday by the Nicaraguan Government to sever diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and expresses its unconditional support for the Dutch Government," said the statement issued this Sunday.

In Brussels it is emphasized that the step taken by the Daniel Ortega regime not only damages already very precarious relations but also further isolates Nicaragua in the international arena.

Borrell has spent many months showing himself very harsh with the regime that Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, have imposed in Nicaragua.

The head of community diplomacy does not hesitate to unequivocally describe what is happening in the Central American country as a “dictatorship”.

Despite the fact that this is the conception of the regime and the step adopted by Managua, the reaction that the Community Executive has issued this Sunday can be described as restrained.

It is true that he speaks that there will be a "proportionate" response, which could be interpreted as a future expulsion of the Nicaraguan representative before the community institutions, but at the same time the door is left open to negotiate to find a way out of the situation.

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