Felipe VI was clear about the objective to be achieved at the XXX Ibero-American Summit, whose plenary session is being held in Madrid this Thursday. The Monarch, in his role as moderator, opened the meeting by asking for "dialogue" and, in a musical allegory, prayed that the debate would sound "harmonious", that the speakers would "stick to the score." His request was accepted, despite the fact that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and his great enemy in Latin America, Javier Milei, found a way to appeal to each other without naming each other, but starring in a new chapter of dialectical confrontation.
The liberal leader arrived at the Gallery of the Royal Collections smiling, a few hours after landing in Spain and after being absent from the welcome ceremony and dinner with which King Felipe and Queen Letizia received the Ibero-American leaders. Milei, who, however, did meet last night with the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, arrived in Madrid disappointed with Moncloa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since he has formally asked them for a bilateral meeting with Don Felipe, and has not received a response.
Perhaps for this reason, the Argentine leader began his speech by making a kind of historical essay, which began with an argument that he repeats every time he comes to Spain: the influence of the Iberian Peninsula on the Ibero-American region. The Argentine president claimed the Western roots of Ibero-America, defended economic liberalism as a way to achieve prosperity and presented his Government's reforms as an example that it is possible to reverse the decline.
«These equivalences between socialists and fascists are not coincidental. "They share a hatred for the free market, they adore State intervention, they nationalize companies, they regulate the economy, they control the media and they are dedicated to spreading propaganda and indoctrination," said Milei, who once again attacked the agendas that are called progressive and that, in his opinion, "are gaining ground in Europe."
The Argentine president defended that individual freedom, private property and the right to life must constitute the inalienable principles of any society. To do so, he appealed to the Western roots shared by Spain, Portugal and Latin America and claimed the legacy of the Salamanca School, whose thinkers, he maintained, placed justice at the center of economic decisions. "Economic liberalism has an enormous intellectual debt with Spain," he noted.
In his historical journey he also evoked Salvador de Madariaga and his defense of freedom against totalitarianism. Milei argued that both socialism and fascism concentrate control of individual decisions in the hands of a minority and turn economic dependence into a tool of political domination. "The fascist maxim, everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State, describes socialist States," he proclaimed.
"There are regimes that invoke human rights while imprisoning dissidents and silencing the press, the president accused. Despite these words, Milei wanted to focus on other countries in the region to give a message of optimism in his opinion. "The liberal spirit is still alive and today Argentina shows that this progress is possible," he defended. And he added that "the latest elections in Chile, Colombia and Peru promote a democratic rebellion against paternalism and abuse of power."
The Argentine president later transferred that speech to the management of his own Government. He recalled once again that he received an economy marked, in his words, by "a consolidated deficit of 15 points of GDP" and by excessive regulations. Faced with this scenario, he defended the adjustment applied since he came to power and assured that in one month he eliminated five points of deficit in the Treasury and that in six months he ended the Central Bank deficit.
Milei also took advantage of the Ibero-American forum to demand greater responsibility from multilateral organizations in the use of resources and to support governments that, in his opinion, are determined to undertake liberal reforms. His message was also a call to the leaders of the region to limit the power of the State and put institutions at the service of individual freedom.
The second part of his intervention was dedicated to Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands. Milei described this issue as a "sacred cause" for Argentines and recalled that, according to the position of Buenos Aires, the country inherited the titles of sovereignty over the archipelago from Spain.
In an environment in which knives cut the air, Pedro Sánchez, who intervened minutes before the Argentine president, also sent veiled messages, without naming him. He made a determined commitment to multilateralism and "dialogue, cooperation and peace", in the face of the dialectic of confrontation that marks the current relations between the Argentine and Spanish governments. The President of the Government has admitted the "different realities" that exist within the Ibero-American community - in fact, Sánchez is in a minority against a hegemony of right-wing leaders - but they consider that this should not short-circuit the need for "cooperation" between all.
«Therefore, dialogue versus imposition; cooperation versus division; peace versus violence. Principles that brought us here and that are also those that should guide us in the coming years," Sánchez reflected. His commitment to multilateralism, humanistic Artificial Intelligence or the fight against climate change are approaches that clash with those defended by leaders like Milei or Donald Trump.
Sánchez's warning has been clear, without naming the recipients, but floating in the air who it was addressed to: "We are meeting at a particularly complex and difficult time for the world. A moment in which tensions multiply, shared rules are questioned and mistrust threatens to overtake collaboration.
Sánchez has called for Ibero-America to occupy the place that, he considers, belongs to it in the world, which, as he has stated, must be a preferential place, of weight, that must be heard. And he has warned against the danger of conformism. His call to the leaders present in Madrid is to work to occupy that place in the international context. «Our community has every reason to aspire to much more. We represent around 9% of the world's population. “We share two great global languages, along with an extraordinary wealth of native and co-official languages,” was the reflection of the leader of the Spanish executive.
Finally, the presentations of the leaders of the delegations took place without direct attacks, something that Don Felipe appreciated at the end of the meeting, where he transferred the Pro Tempore secretariat to Honduras. The head of state insisted on the need to "reaffirm the value of a space that allows us to influence together" and stressed his conviction of the usefulness of these summits, but confessed that "the continuity of cooperation must go hand in hand with the ability to renew it."
