The person in charge of receiving the leaders at the doors of the Gallery of Royal Collections to begin the plenary session of the Ibero-American Summit was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. Affectionate greetings, intense handshakes, hugs, relaxed conversations... except with the president of Argentina, Javier Milei. Coldness. Like the day. The Spanish minister stretches out his hand, marks his distance, polite greeting. Without further ado. The liberal leader exhibited much greater distance with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Milei doesn't even look at him in his grip. These are the institutional relations between both governments. Executive sources confirm to this newspaper that there has been no further contact throughout the summit.
Because silence is the position with which Sánchez's team has decided to respond to Milei. This is what they did three weeks ago, when the Argentine president called the socialist a "dictator" during a Nueva Economía Forum breakfast. And that has been the same response to the formal request for a meeting with Felipe VI. A week ago Casa Rosada sent through official channels the request for Milei to maintain a bilateral relationship with the Monarch. The Government has not even bothered to respond with a negative. They opted for silence. What's more, when asked by Milei's team, they said that everything was going on. But in the 34 hours that the president was in Spain - where he left last night to receive Pope Leo XIV in Buenos Aires - there was no response.
Sánchez's position at this summit was to try to be institutional, more measured than two years ago, when Spain withdrew the ambassador in Buenos Aires in response to Milei's words against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez. This is how his team explains why he did not enter into a more intense clash when he was asked at yesterday's press conference about the Argentine president's words. "I understand that presidents are there to unite countries, particularly when we are in multilateral spaces like this, not to confront states," he tried to clarify. But he could not contain himself: "The insult is not part of my way of acting or my way of understanding politics."
Sources from La Moncloa state that after Milei's equation of socialism with fascism "we do not take it for granted." They point out that there is freedom for each leader to express their ideas, but they do clarify: «Spanish socialism is at the opposite end of fascism. You just have to compare Sánchez with Milei to prove it. Public attempt to maintain manners, but privately anger and ball returned to the Argentine. The Government also regrets that the Argentine president has "twisted", they say, a quote from "such an illustrious thinker" as Madariaga to adapt it to his interests.
In the plenary session, in the presence of all the leaders, Sánchez did want to leave messages between the lines. Messages for those who would like to understand... «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 firm commitment to multilateralism, humanistic Artificial Intelligence or the fight against climate change are approaches that clash with those defended by leaders like Milei or Trump.
The tension with Argentina contrasts with the cordiality maintained with Chile, where there is a radical right-wing government. In these two days in Madrid, José Antonio Kast has held meetings with the King and Sánchez. He met with the latter in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit at his request. He described it as "a very good meeting." The Chilean president also provided a cover for the president of the Spanish government by avoiding equating fascism with socialism and highlighting his meeting with Sánchez, as well as with other leaders such as Alberto Núñez Feijóo or Santiago Abascal. "I had a very good meeting here with President Pedro Sánchez, also with the leaders of the opposition to his government," he said.
Despite the veiled attacks between Milei and Sánchez, the King seemed to achieve his objective in the plenary session. Felipe VI was clear about the tone to achieve at the XXX Ibero-American Summit. 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 and at the end of the summit, 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."
To finish his words, the Monarch wanted to reinforce the message of the usefulness of the Ibero-American alliance. In this sense, the King defined the region as "the counterpoint of a geopolitical time marked by fronts, blocs, rivalry and competition. "We cannot change global inertia, but we can demonstrate to the world that bilateral diplomacy still makes sense," he stated.
