Pedro Sánchez and Javier Milei shared a cold greeting this Thursday on the occasion of the Ibero-American Summit, in their first face-to-face meeting and after the controversy over the Argentine president’s insults to the head of the Spanish Government.
Sánchez has been greeting, together with the king and the Ibero-American secretary general, Andrés Allamand, the heads of delegation attending the XXX Ibero-American Summit, which is being held in the Gallery of the Royal Collections.
An official greeting after the reception to all attendees by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who shook the hand of the Argentine president upon his arrival while they had a protocolary exchange of words.
In the official greeting, Milei shook hands with the king between mutual smiles, and then he did the same with Sánchez in a much colder and briefer way on the part of both.
Milei was not at the opening ceremony
The Argentine president, who arrived in Madrid this Wednesday, was absent from the opening ceremony of the summit at the Teatro Real and the subsequent dinner offered by the kings at the Royal Palace, but he held a meeting with the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal.
The meeting took place two weeks after Milei’s last trip to Spain so far, during which at an event with businessmen he called Sánchez an “unpresentable dictator.”
The President of the Government received him in Madrid with a campaign on social networks, headed with the slogan ‘I am left-wing and very honored’, in reference to the name that the Argentine president uses in a derogatory way to refer to the political left.
In addition, Sánchez later published a photograph in which he appeared listening to the song ‘Fanático’ by the Argentine singer Lali and which was composed against Milei.
Previous exchanges of insults
There have been previous episodes of confrontation, and so, after the then minister Óscar Puente suggested in early May 2024 that Milei had ingested substances, the Argentine President’s Office included harsh attacks on Pedro Sánchez and references to corruption accusations about his wife, Begoña Gómez.
On May 19 of that year, Milei, at an event organized by Vox in Madrid, indirectly called Sánchez a “scumbag” and described Begoña Gómez as “corrupt.”
The Spanish Government demanded a public rectification and, when none came, called its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations and then decided to withdraw her.
Sánchez responded that Milei had not been up to par and defended that the Spanish reaction was proportional to the insults and the attack on the institutions.
The Argentine president insisted on his attacks, called Sánchez a “coward”, said that he applied a model similar to that of Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro and reiterated that he did not intend to apologize.
