Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has summoned the Argentine ambassador to Madrid after the Argentine president Javier Milei has verbally attacked the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his wife, Albares said Monday.
Argentina’s ultra-liberal leader Milei attended an election rally organized by Spain’s right-wing populist party Vox for the European elections in Madrid on Sunday, where he sharply criticized Sánchez’s left-wing government and described the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, as “corrupt ‘. .”
A “public apology” has been demanded from Milei or action would be taken, Albares told state broadcaster RTVE, after Madrid had already recalled its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations and “indefinitely”.
According to RTVE and other local media, Madrid is considering severing diplomatic ties over the incident. A government spokesman in Buenos Aires initially ruled out an apology.
Albares accused Milei of “interference in the internal affairs of Spain” and said that “a foreign head of state does not visit a country to insult its institutions.”
On Sunday, Spain’s top diplomat had spoken of a “frontal attack on our democracy, on our institutions and on Spain.”
At the rally in Madrid, attended by about 11,000 participants from Europe, the US and Latin America, Milei was celebrated as a “rock star”, according to El Mundo newspaper and other media.
During his speech, the Argentine president, who describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist,” said we should “say no more to damned and cancerous socialism.” He also claimed that socialism leads “to slavery or death,” and that social justice is “always unjust.”
The meeting was also attended by leading far-right, right-wing populist and national-conservative politicians from abroad, including Marine Le Pen of the French Rassemblement National party, Portugal’s André Ventura of the right-wing populist Chega party and Israel’s Minister of Social Affairs . equality, Amichai Chikli.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined by video link and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sent a message describing the June 6 to 9 European Parliament elections as “a great common struggle” against a Europe that promotes “mass illegal migration” .
