Albares imposes the law of silence on diplomats after the dismissal of the ambassador in Croatia

The dismissal of the Spanish ambassador in Croatia by the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been interpreted within the diplomatic career as a warning from José Manuel Albares to his colleagues, to whom he has reminded them of a maxim that prevails in the Madrid headquarters of the Palace of the Marquis of Salamanca since he was appointed head of the ministry in July 2021: that while he is minister, no foreign official can speak to journalists and, in the case of writing for the media, they must consult the Office of Foreign Affairs in advance. Diplomatic Information (OID), the department from which the inquiries that the Ministry receives from the media are managed.

Apart from the personal vendetta that Albares has had since December 2021 with the recently dismissed ambassador of Spain in Croatia, Juan González-Barba, his dismissal is not something that diplomats are going to just let go. They are not going to reveal themselves against the minister, among other things because they understand that Albares will one day cease to be head of Foreign Affairs and his “terror command” will end -as an ambassador described to ABC a couple of days ago-, but above all it is the circumstance that the majority of diplomats understand that, above any minister, they have to continue carrying out their work in the best possible way at the service of foreign policy, a career they chose for their vocation of public service to the country.

The fact, however, that Albares has dismissed González-Barba for having published a forum in favor of the parliamentary monarchy and the figure of Felipe VI is something “worrying” and “very serious”as two diplomats affirm. Beyond the result of the poor harmony that exists between Foreign Affairs and the Zarzuela Palace due to Albares’ hostility towards the head of the House of HM the King, Camilo Villarinothe reason that hovers in the background of Albares’ decision to dismiss González-Barba is related to the fact that The minister “prohibits” diplomats from speaking to journalists or publish texts in the media without their knowledge and consent. Something that, according to one of the sources consulted by ABC, “is incomprehensible”, among other things because the members of the diplomatic career know what topics they can talk about and would never make statements or publish opinion articles that went against the policies of the ministry, nor would they reveal confidential information. That is why they regret that since the arrival of Albares their rights to speak and write about any topic – which are the same as those dictated by the article 20 of the Constitution for any other ordinary citizen – have been constrained by an internal mandate from the minister, whom they accuse of excessively controlling any information that comes out of the ministry, to the point of generating unnecessary bureaucratic traffic jams because “everything has to go through he”.

Two similar cases

It also happens that González-Barba has not been the only ambassador dismissed for publishing an article – which was still an almost academic forum – in a media outlet. Before him, there were two more cases: those of José María Ridao and Javier Benosa.

In 2023, in an article in El País, Ridao reflected his discomfort with the General Intervention of the State Administration regarding the possibility of eliminating the lowest salaries in embassies and threatened to resign as head of mission in India if this measure continued. forward. This publication caused his departure from New Delhi.

Benosa touched on a sensitive issue for the Government when – at the end of 2023, as head of the Gibraltar Office -, he denounced in El Mundo the silence of Foreign Affairs with the amnesty. A topic on which ABC published many articles echoing the frustration and disappointment of the ambassadors assigned to missions abroad, who were forced to defend the amnesty and throw away the work they had done for six years so that no country will join in supporting the process in Catalonia. Benosa was relieved when he had only been in Gibraltar for nine months.

«To all the people with whom he has had a brush, then he has crushed them»points out a diplomat. In addition to these decisions made by Albares with his professional colleagues, there are others that concern the media. When he took office as minister, it was proposed that Foreign Affairs officials have “zero contact” with diplomatic correspondents. What happened last week at the Ambassadors’ Conference was striking, when after their speech the journalists were not able to access the room where the ambassadors had coffee, something that has happened in previous editions.

He does not want to see, as happened before, journalists knocking on the doors of officials’ offices to ask them about foreign policy matters. The minister understands that any information about current topics that citizens should know He has to give it. Hence, the ‘briefings’ of General Directors are no longer organized either, which helped journalists to better understand the situation in certain regions of the world, the conflicts that exist in those areas and Spain’s actions in matters of foreign policy in the countries in those areas.