 "Why are Argentina and Spain feuding over PM Pedro Sánchez's wife?")
Spain and Argentina are feuding again – and not on the football pitch this time.
Spain has recalled its ambassador after some intemperate remarks from Argentina’s president Javier Milei.
Milei, a libertarian and self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, was swept into office in December by voters reeling from inflation and poverty.
He pledged ‘shock therapy’ to fix Argentina – which is suffering from 150 per cent inflation.
But what happened exactly?
Let’s take a closer look:
According to The Guardian, ties between Spain’s left-wing socialist government and Argentina’s right-wing government have become strained since Milei took office.
This row kicked off two weeks ago when Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente suggested that Milei was ‘abusing substances.’
“There are very bad people who, just being themselves, have reached the top. Milei, for instance. Trump,” Puente said.
He added he did not know how Milei was “prior to ingestion or after ingestion” of substances.
As per The Guardian, Milei’s office responded by accusing Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez of hurting his nation’s economy and stability.
The office of the Argentinian president accused Sánchez of “endangering Spanish women by allowing illegal immigration” and claiming that his policies would bring to Spain “death and poverty.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe Spanish foreign ministry responded to Milei’s office by saying, “The Spanish government categorically rejects the unfounded words … which do not reflect the relations between the two countries and their fraternal people.”
As per Buenos Aires Times, Puente later apologised, saying he had made ‘a mistake.’
That led to Argentina’s government declaring the issue “closed” and “finished.”
But that clearly didn’t happen.
According to Buenos Aires Times, another top minister in Spain’s government then accused Milei of ‘spreading hate.’
“There aren’t many generators of hate, but they make a lot of noise and flood everything. Milei and other hate governments are back with cutbacks and authoritarianism,” Spain’s second deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz said ahead of Milei’s visit to Spain.
Milei himself stoked controversy while in Spain on 18 and 19 May.
Not only did he break diplomatic protocol by refusing to meet Spain’s King Felipe and Sánchez – instead preferring to promote his book alongside far-right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal at a rally – he also accused Gomez of being corrupt.
“The global elites don’t realise how destructive it can be to implement the ideas of socialism,” Milei was quoted as saying by Fox28.
“They don’t know the type of society and country that can produce, the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that generates.”
“When you have a corrupt wife, let’s say, it gets dirty, and you take five days to think about it.”
That remark came as Sánchez – who last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government – has been dealing with the fallout of a Spanish court launching a preliminary investigation into accusations of influence peddling and corruption levelled at his wife Begona Gomez.
A city court said it was looking into the accusations of influence peddling and business corruption against Sánchez’s wife, brought in a private complaint by Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, an anti-corruption activist group.
Sánchez had decided to step back from public duties for a few days as he pondered stepping down.
He ultimately decided he would remain in office.
He has called the allegations against his wife ‘baseless’ and orchestrated by his right-wing political opponents.
Madrid’s prosecuting authority has said it is appealing to have the case thrown out for lack of evidence.
Milei in his speech also took aim at socialism, calling it “cursed and carcinogenic.”
“Let us not let the dark, black, satanic, atrocious, horrible carcinogenic side that is socialism prevail over us,” Milei was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
‘Very serious and unprecedented’
According to El Pais, Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares then announced that he was recalling the Spanish ambassador from Buenos Aires indefinitely.
Albares, reading out a statement from the seat of government La Moncloa, warned that Spain “will take all appropriate measures in defence of our sovereignty and dignity.”
Albares described the remarks as “very serious” and unprecedented.
He added that they went beyond “any type of political and ideological differences.”
Fox28 quoted Albares as saying Argentina’s ambassador would be summoned “to explain to him the gravity of the situation and I am going to demand again a public apology by Javier Milei.”
He said he expected an apology from Milei.
“With his behaviour, Milei has brought the relationship between Spain and Argentina to its most serious state in recent history,” Albares said in a video statement.
Albares warned that relations could be severed between the two nations.
Other Spanish ministers also slammed Milei’s speech.
Milei would not apologise, his spokesperson said in an interview with an Argentine TV channel later Sunday.
Spanish officials should retract insults they have made against him, he added.
“There is no apology to make,” Argentina’s interior minister Guillermo Francos was quoted as saying by Fox28. “I think, on the contrary, it is for the Spanish government to make an apology for what has been said about Milei.”
Milei’s spokesman Manuel Adorni said the Spanish government was one “of hate, an example of denialism and attack on democracy”.
Adorni claimed it would be “irrational” of Madrid to sever relations.
He added that the row was “between people and not between countries”.
“President Milei spoke the truth as he has done in any country, in any setting and before any audience,” said Adorni.
Adorni said Buenos Aires “did not understand the reason for (Madrid’s) resentment (since) the Argentine president did not mention anyone in particular.”
AA.com quoted Argentina’s interior minister Guillermo Francos as saying Milei would not apologise “because he doesn’t have a reason to.”
“Instead, we would be pleased if the Spanish leader apologised for the abuse and mistreatment,” he added.
‘Lion is back’
Milei, meanwhile, has shown no sense of contrition.
“The lion is back and surfing on the waves of the socialist tears,” he wrote on X.
“Long live liberty.”
This isn’t the first time Milei has taken aim at a foreign counterpart.
According to BBC, Milei called Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva an “angry communist.”
He described Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador as “ignorant” and called Colombia’s Gustavo Petro “a terrorist murderer.”
But Milei and Sánchez have had a poor relationship from the beginning.
As per Al Jazeera, Sánchez supported Milei’s rival Sergio Massa in Argentina’s presidential election.
He has also not spoken to Milei since he took power.
Milei, meanwhile, has thrown his lot in with the Vox party whose chief Santiago Abascal attended Milei’s swearing-in ceremony.
Vox eyes gains in European Parliament
The developments also come ahead of the election to the European parliament where Vox, which has received supported from Milei, hopes to ride a populist wave in the 9 June election to increase its current representation of four MEPs.
A poll by Cluster 17 released on Friday showed Vox garnering 8.8 per cent of the vote and six seats.
Vox’s best showing in a general election came in 2019, when it won 52 seats in the 350-seat lower house boosted by Catalonia’s failed bid for independence.
Its support has since waned but it remains the third-largest party in parliament with 33 seats.
Vox on Sunday held a mass rally in Madrid touting the support of Milei, the prime ministers of Italy and Hungary and right-wing leaders from France and Portugal.
Nearly 11,000 supporters, according to Vox, packed a former bullring waving hundreds of Spanish flags, as well as some of Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela and Israel.
They cheered speakers ranging from French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to the leader of Portugal’s Chega, Andre Ventura, and jeered at every mention of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, feminism or socialism.
Milei earned a standing ovation with a speech in which he excoriated “lefties” and defended free market capitalism.
He also thanked Vox leader Santiago Abascal for his early friendship, “when I was lonelier than Adam on Mother’s Day”.
The presence of foreign dignitaries prompted tight security, days after the shooting of Slovakia’s Robert Fico.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who appeared via a live video-link, won applause for her speech in Spanish in which she attacked irregular migration and surrogate pregnancies.
Hungary’s Viktor Orban and former Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki extolled what they called Europe’s Christian values in pre-recorded videos.
Chile’s presidential runner-up Jose Antonio Kast and Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chakli received a more muted reception.
But enthusiasm was high for former US president Donald Trump, represented in Madrid by the vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation and former White House staffers Matt and Mercedes Schlapp.
The event ended with Spain’s national anthem while insults were hurled at the reporters present.
With inputs from agencies
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