German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, January 21, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that she did not think elections in Venezuela that returned Nicolas Maduro to power in 2018 were free and she wanted the people there to have fresh elections.

“We want to contribute to making sure there is no escalation, but also to the Venezuelan people being able to promote their own interests and that can only happen via new elections in our view,” Merkel told a news conference in Berlin.