Javier Milei arrives this Wednesday in Madrid in what will be his eighth visit to Spain since he became president of Argentina. In all of them, the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has made room in his agenda to meet with the president. In all of them except the last one, two weeks ago, when the pre-campaign for 29-N had just begun, the Spanish leader did not meet with Milei, and excused his absence from the electoral caravan outside Madrid. However, and although the party wanted to convey that the relationship with its partner was still intact - Abascal published a video making a video call with the Argentine -, the lack of the classic photo between the two was notable.
Now, and despite the controversy that Milei generated during his time in Spain in October - he was full of insults to President Pedro Sánchez and disqualified the media - the leader of Vox has found the time to meet with the president. "I will have a meeting with him after the Cuenca rally," Abascal himself announced in an interview with Onda Cero this morning. The appointment will have to be late in the afternoon, since the leader of Vox will star in a public event at 7:00 p.m. in that Castilian-La Mancha city and tomorrow he will attend to the media in Albacete at 12:00 p.m. A busy agenda in which, this time, Abascal has sought to find space for Milei - two weeks ago, the route he designed placed him in the north of Spain during the president's visit.
Abascal's relationship with Milei is one of the first international ties that the Vox leader forged, and dates back to before the Argentine became President. Although the Spanish leader has never disgraced Milei for his controversial statements when he comes to Spain - the last time, he did not censor the insults to Sánchez -, during his visit two weeks ago the absence of the image together was striking, as well as the low attendance of Vox leaders at the informative breakfast in which he starred - although the party's number two, Ignacio Garriga, did receive it later -. In the formation, and Abascal himself, they hid behind the campaign agenda to justify the absences, under the argument that their priority was the national level, especially in pre-election time.
The Vox leader stated the same thing today when asked about his other international alliances, which throughout the legislature have generated several controversies due to the clash between his speech and his foreign ties. "We have coincidences with some other international movements, and then different interests," said Abascal, and pointed out: "Precisely in our coincidence is our greatest clash of interests." His defense of the "national interest" is shared by his "allies", each one with respect to his country, as he has reasoned, and it is in that "defense of the national interest" where he believes that "they often clash."
Under this umbrella, and claiming that his attention is above all on the Spanish elections of 29-N, and not on what is happening on the other side of the pond, Abascal has avoided assessing the defeat suffered tonight by Donald Trump's party in the US midterm elections. "It's something that happens regularly," he said about the situation in which a US president faces two chambers with the opposite sign. And, once again, he wanted to shift the focus to the national: "From the perspective of the Spanish people, which is what matters to me, it is convenient to have a good relationship with the US."
