Simon Hunter
ARGENTINE President Javier Milei has asked for an audience with Spanish King Felipe VI on an upcoming visit to the country, but so far that request has fallen on deaf ears.
Spain and Argentina are still in the midst of a diplomatic crisis, which began when Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente publicly speculated that Milei was a drug user, and deepened when the Argentine president called the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ‘corrupt’.
Sanchez called on Milei to apologise, which only saw him double down, branding the prime minister a ‘coward’.
Spain then recalled its ambassador from Buenos Aires as the spat deepened.
Milei will be travelling to Spain this Friday, to receive a prize from a neoliberal thinktank in Madrid.
Ahead of his trip, according to a report in Spanish daily El Pais, he requested an audience with King Felipe VI. He did not, however, make a similar call to meet with Prime Minister Sanchez.
Sources from the Royal Household confirmed to El Pais that no such meeting is on the king’s agenda.
What’s more, they pointed out the monarch ‘coordinates trips abroad and visits to Spain made by international leaders with the Foreign Ministry’.
For its part, the Foreign Ministry refused to comment on ‘the agenda of foreign leaders’.
Milei will, however, be meeting with the regional premier of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso of the conservative Partido Popular (PP).
Ayuso has decided to award the Argentine president with the region’s International Medal.
The Madrid premier has been one of the most outspoken critics of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a political conflict that began during the coronavirus pandemic over the central government’s handling of the health crisis.
Back in May, Ayuso aligned herself with Milei, blaming Transport Minister Oscar Puente for having started the spat, and arguing that the Socialists were taking Spain in the same ‘ruinous direction’ as Milei’s predecessors had.
Despite the diplomatic tension between the two countries, Spain has agreed to the usual protocols that swing into action when a foreign leader makes a visit.
Milei’s official plane will be able to land at a Madrid airport, and his security detail will be allowed to carry weapons, according to El Pais. The Interior Ministry will also supply a unit to guarantee his safety while on Spanish soil.
