The foreign policy of the ultra Javier Milei is “isolating Argentina from the rest of the world.” That is the diagnosis of Peronism, the main opposition force of the Latin American country, after the new diplomatic clash carried out by the Argentine president. Milei’s predecessor, Alberto Fernández, regretted that the privileged link between Spain and Argentina is now “at its worst moment” after the public insult made this Sunday by Milei against the family of the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, during a rally of the ultra Vox party on the outskirts of Madrid. In response, the Spanish Executive has demanded a public apology from the Argentine president and has called his ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations.
Fernández expressed his solidarity with Sánchez and his wife, Begoña Gómez, whom Milei called “corrupt” and insinuated that the Argentine president’s verbal violence can only be explained “by an emotional imbalance.” The former president warned that the diplomatic crisis opened by Milei with Spain adds to the conflicts previously unleashed by her statements with Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and China. “Military in the reactionary international only isolates Argentina,” his former foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, agreed with Fernández.
From the Radical Civic Union (UCR), the other major opposition force in Argentina, they joined the criticism against Milei. “The president’s rock star tour of Spain implies yet another setback in the country’s erratic foreign policy, which continues, from another perspective, the bad foreign policy of Kirchnerism,” stressed the head of the UCR bloc in Deputies. Rodrigo de Loredo. “Argentina needs to export more and better, for this we need a precise and respectable diplomacy that must necessarily begin from the head of the government. We call on the president to reflect and not escalate the conflict with our strategic partners any further,” added De Loredo through social networks.
The socialist deputy Esteban Paulón has requested that the Argentine chancellor, Diana Mondino, appear before the Lower House to give explanations about the state of the diplomatic relationship after “the offending expressions” of Milei. The portfolio led by Mondino, however, remains silent for now.
Historical partners
Spain is one of Argentina’s most important partners, with historical political, economic, cultural and cooperation relations and a Spanish community rooted in the South American country of more than 450,000 people.
The relationship between the governments of both countries was already tense before Milei landed in Madrid on his first visit as president of Argentina. Just two weeks ago, the Spanish Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente, suggested that the Argentine president had ingested “substances” and his comment was responded to with a very harsh statement from the Argentine Presidency, to which accusations from the two Executives were later added.
The Spanish Foreign Minister has assured that Milei’s statements “overcome any type of political and ideological difference” and “are unprecedented” in the history of relations between the two countries. However, in recent years the bilateral relationship has gone through several crises, especially in 2012, after the decision of then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to expropriate the oil company YPF, controlled by the Spanish company Repsol.
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