Spain’s foreign ministry condemned Argentine President Milei on Wednesday after he called Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a “disgraceful dictator” in a Madrid speech and urged Spaniards to “kick the Socialists out.” Spain holds a general election on Nov. 29.
Milei spoke at the Nueva Economía Fórum, a business breakfast series, at Madrid’s Real Casino. He said Spain had taken in hundreds of thousands of Argentines who fled “the sinister socialism of the 21st century, its Argentine branch, which is kirchnerismo,” the wing of Peronism loyal to former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and which he said Spaniards regularly suffer “with the disgraceful dictator Pedro Sánchez.” Later he told the audience that Spain owed it to its liberal tradition, a “debt of honor,” to “kick the Socialists out” (in Spanish, “sacar a los socialistas a patadas”, meaning to throw them out). He also said Socialists encourage immigration because “every immigrant is a vote.”
The foreign ministry’s statement condemned “in the strongest terms” what it called insults and slander aimed at the prime minister, Spain and Spaniards, and, in its words, “the call to use violence” made that morning. It said Spain is a sovereign nation that does not accept outside interference, and called it “unworthy” for the head of a sister nation to visit “with the sole aim of trying to foment a climate of polarization and violence.”
El @MAECgob expresa su más enérgica condena ante los insultos y calumnias dirigidos por Javier Milei al Presidente del Gobierno, a España y a los españoles.
Translation: "The Foreign Ministry expresses its strongest condemnation of the insults and slander directed by Javier Milei at the Prime Minister, at Spain and at Spaniards."
Sánchez answered through the day. He posted “Yes, I am a leftist” in the morning, and later posted that he was listening to an Argentine hit, a song by singer Lali Espósito, who has clashed with Milei. He wrote that Feijóo and Abascal, the leaders of the conservative Popular Party and of Vox, a party to its right, had invited Milei and “now have a problem.” “Chainsaws build nothing, they destroy,” he wrote afterward, adding that if Feijóo and Abascal govern they would do in Spain what Milei is doing in Argentina.
Las motosierras no construyen nada, destruyen. No unen, dividen y fragmentan. No hacen que crezca nuestra economía, la hunden.
Translation: "Chainsaws build nothing, they destroy. They do not unite, they divide and fragment. They do not make our economy grow, they sink it."
Milei did not meet King Felipe VI. He had informally conveyed his interest, and the Royal House reminded him that a meeting with the king is customarily accompanied by one with the prime minister, the Spanish news agency Europa Press reported. Milei, again without meeting Sánchez, said his relationship with the king is excellent and the problem was scheduling.
After the event, Julia Molina, a political reporter for Cadena SER radio, asked whether the visit was awkward for the Popular Party and Vox. Milei answered that it was “a view typical of intellectually short people and miserable politicians,” adding “perhaps it applies in your case.” Molina told La Nación that no politician had ever insulted her personally. She also said members of Milei’s security detail pushed aside a colleague from El País who was trying to record his answers.
Abascal did not meet Milei in person, citing campaign events, and spoke with him by video call. Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the Popular Party, received him in a private meeting, as planned for the trip.