Spain on Monday demanded a “public apology” from Argentina’s President Javier Milei for calling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife “corrupt” amid a deepening diplomatic crisis between the Hispanic allies.
However, Buenos Aires showed no sign it would do so, insisting it was Spain that should say sorry for insulting Milei and his government over weeks of growing tensions.
Spain’s socialist government has already recalled its ambassador to Buenos Aires and the two leaders sparred over the comments made to a conference of far-right leaders in Madrid.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he would summon the Argentine ambassador on Monday “to explain to him the gravity of the situation and I am going to demand again a public apology by Javier Milei”.
Albares said he would not exclude the possibility of rupturing diplomatic ties with Argentina “if there is no public apology”.
However, Buenos Aires slammed these “flashy and impulsive threats” and insisted it is Madrid that must make amends.
“There is no apology to make,” said Argentina’s Interior Minister Guillermo Francos. “I think, on the contrary, it is for the Spanish government to make an apology for what has been said about Milei,” he told the TN television channel.
Milei’s spokesman Manuel Adorni on Monday told a press conference that Spanish officials should apologise for accusing the Argentine leader of “consuming substances” and saying that his government was one “of hate, an example of denialism and attack on democracy”.
Last month, Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente hinted that Milei took drugs.
Adorni said it would be “irrational” for Madrid to cut diplomatic ties, saying the spat was “between people and not between countries”.
“President Milei spoke the truth as he has done in any country, in any setting and before any audience,” said Adorni.
– Not sorry –
Milei caused outrage at a Madrid conference organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party. He lashed out at socialism and attacked Sanchez’s wife, Begona Gomez, without naming her.
“The global elites don’t realise how destructive it can be to implement the ideas of socialism,” Milei said.
“They don’t know the type of society and country that can produce, the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that generates.”
He added: “When you have a corrupt wife, let’s say, it gets dirty, and you take five days to think about it.”
Sanchez recently considered resigning and suspended his schedule for several days after Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary corruption investigation against his wife, which was quickly closed.
Milei’s spokesman Adorni said Buenos Aires “did not understand the reason for (Madrid’s) resentment (since) the Argentine president did not mention anyone in particular” in his speech.
Within hours of Milei’s attack, Spain recalled its ambassador and Albares slammed the visiting president’s “insult”. The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell also condemned Milei’s latest remarks.
Sanchez accused Milei of not being “worthy” of the countries’ “fraternal bonds” and called on the president to retract the comments about his wife.
Milei, meanwhile, showed no regrets in his response on X. “The lion is back and surfing on the waves of the socialist tears,” he said. “Long live liberty”.
– Business backlash –
Milei arrived in Spain on Friday and there was immediate diplomatic friction as no meetings with Sanchez or King Felipe VI were organised during his stay. During a speech on his first day, Milei denounced what he called “satanic” socialism.
The weeks of mounting tensions are starting to worry Spanish companies that invest $15 billion a year in Argentina.
Spanish companies are the second largest investors in Argentina behind US enterprises. The CEOE business federation chief, Antonio Garamendi, said Milei’s attack could “damage” exchanges.
Milei, a self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”, won elections last November and took office vowing to reduce Argentina’s vast public debt to zero.
He has instituted an austerity programme that has seen the government slash subsidies for transport, fuel and energy.
A host of European far-right and conservative leaders spoke at the Madrid conference.
Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right standard bearer, spoke at the event while Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sent video messages.
