In forty-eight hours, a quarrel broke out and took such proportions that it is now shaking the diplomatic relationship between Argentina and Spain, which threatens, in the absence of an excuse, to break off its relations with the southern country. American. If the dispute, part of an attack targeting the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, may seem superficial, it is in reality rooted in a breeding ground of growing tensions between the socialist European state and the Argentine leader newly installed in 2023. Story of a quarrel in four acts, the outcome of which is not yet known but could be fatal to relations between the two countries.
Act I: the fertile ground of diplomatic quarrel
It is against a backdrop of an already particularly tense atmosphere that the diplomatic quarrel has broken out today. On a three-day visit to Spain, Argentine President Javier Milei met neither King Felipe VI nor socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who supported his rival Sergio Massa during the Argentine presidential election.
A few weeks ago, a controversy had gained momentum: Oscar Puente, the Spanish Minister of Transport, had openly suggested that Javier Milei was taking drugs. The Argentine presidency reacted by accusing Pedro Sánchez of having “endangered the middle class with his socialist policies which only bring poverty and death.” Criticisms in turn deemed “unfounded” by Madrid. This skirmish was finally considered “finished” by the Argentine presidency and by Oscar Puente himself, who admitted having made a “mistake” and not having been aware of the repercussions of his statements.
Act II: Pedro Sanchez’s “corrupt woman”
It was ultimately one of the usual shocking sentences from the Argentine president who set fire to the rag between Madrid and Buenos Aires on Sunday May 19. In open conflict, for several months, with the Spanish government, it was during a visit as guest of honor to the “Europa Viva 24” congress organized by the Spanish far-right party Vox that he attacks, as usual, the “socialism” of the left party in power in Spain. But not only that: this time, it is also the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Begoña Sanchez, that the vigorous Argentine politician verbally attacks, calling her — without directly naming her — a corrupt woman.
“The global elites do not realize how destructive implementing the ideas of socialism can be. They do not know the type of society and country it can produce and the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that this can generate,” he says. And added: “when you have a corrupt wife, you get dirty and you take five days to think about it.” Comments perceived as a clear allusion to Pedro Sánchez’s recent decision to suspend all his activities for five days to consider resigning – an option ultimately ruled out – after the opening of a preliminary investigation for “influence peddling” and ” corruption” against his wife.
Act III: recall of the ambassador for “unprecedented attack”
The reaction is not long in coming. In the process, the Minister of Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares announced, from Sunday, the recall until further notice of the Spanish ambassador to Argentina after the “extremely serious words” of Javier Milei, considered as an attack “without precedent in the history of relations” between Spain and Argentina. “It is unacceptable that a current president visiting Spain insults our democracy,” reprimands the minister in a statement read on television, evoking a departure from “diplomatic customs” and the “most basic rules of coexistence between country”.
The same day, Buenos Aires retorts: it is up to Pedro Sánchez to apologize for what the Spanish government said about Javier Milei, accused in particular on Friday by the number three of the Spanish government of sowing “hate”. “There is no excuse to make. No excuses. I think, on the contrary, that the Spanish government should apologize for what it said about Milei,” said Argentine Interior Minister Guillermo Francos. , on the TN channel.
Act IV: towards a breakdown in diplomatic relations?
Part of a shocking sentence, the diplomatic dispute reached more than significant proportions this Monday, May 20, while tension continues to rise between the two countries. In the absence of any gesture from the Argentine presidency, it was the country’s ambassador to Spain who was summoned in the early morning to be the messenger of a new request for apologies. “I will convey to him the seriousness of the situation and demand again a public apology from Javier Milei,” the Spanish Foreign Minister explained on Cadena Ser radio.
Asked explicitly about the possibility of a breakdown in diplomatic relations if the Argentine president did not apologize, the Spanish minister did not rule out this possibility. “We obviously do not want to take these measures,” he assured. “But if there is no public apology, we will.”