The Spanish government announced this Sunday that it was recalling the Spanish ambassador to Argentina until further notice, accusing Argentine President Javier Milei of having “insulted Spain” and its Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a speech in Madrid. In a solemn declaration, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, also indicated that Madrid “(demanded) a public apology” from Javier Milei, following polemical remarks made by the head of state Argentinian a few hours earlier on the wife of Pedro Sánchez.
Javier Milei said the words in question during a bellicose speech at the “Europa Viva 24” convention organized by the Spanish far-right party Vox, of which he was the guest of honor. During this congress, the Argentine president, accustomed to shock phrases and in open conflict for several weeks with the Spanish government, attacked the left-wing parties in very offensive terms, as he is accustomed to doing, but also taken from the Prime Minister’s wife, Begoña Sánchez, accusing her of being “corrupt”, without however naming her.
Clear allusion to the affair which affects the wife of Pedro Sanchez
“The world’s elites do not realize how destructive implementing the ideas of socialism can be,” he said in the speech. “They don’t know the type of society and country that this can produce and the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that this can generate,” he continued. And added: “When you have a corrupt wife, you get dirty and you take five days to think about it. »
Although he did not mention any names at any time, this was a clear allusion to Pedro Sánchez’s recent decision to suspend all his activities and step aside for five days to consider a possible resignation, after the Spanish courts opened a preliminary investigation for “influence peddling” and “corruption” against his wife. “The extremely serious words spoken today by Javier Milei in Madrid go beyond any type of political and ideological differences,” denounced José Manuel Albarres in a televised statement read a few hours after the Argentine president’s remarks.
” Unprecedented “
“They are unprecedented in the history of international relations and even less so in the history of relations between two countries and two peoples united by solid bonds of brotherhood,” he continued. For these reasons, “I have just recalled our ambassador to Buenos Aires sine die for consultations and Spain demands a public apology from Mr. Milei.”
“If this apology is not presented, we will take all measures that we deem appropriate to defend our sovereignty and our dignity,” he warned, without providing details of these measures. Javier Milei made these remarks at the end of a three-day visit to Spain, during which he met neither King Felipe VI nor Pedro Sánchez, who supported his rival Sergio Massa during the Argentine presidential election and with whom he maintains frosty relations.