-OpEd-
BUENOS AIRES — Argentine President Javier Milei’s visit to Spain last weekend, the third since his election last November, raised questions — and eyebrows — on both sides of the Atlantic. Nobody was expecting cordiality as Milei is brazenly right-wing and Spain has a socialist government led by prime minister Pedro Sánchez. But to visit a country for an opposition event without meeting anyone from the government is certainly unusual, if not outright inappropriate.
Milei was in Madrid to attend a noisy gathering of right-wingers arranged by Spain’s far-right party Vox. Its leader, Santiago Abascal, one of Spain’s more abrasive politicians, backed Milei as candidate last year as Spanish Socialists backed the Peronist candidate, Sergio Massa.
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The right-wing jamboree included other questionable guests like France’s Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally party, Chile’s twice-presidential candidate José Antonio Kast and virtual participants like Italy’s conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. A few Argentines living in Madrid also attended. It was timed just ahead of European parliamentary elections, where polls suggest the far right may tally record support.
This was neither an official nor a state visit, but rather a calculated gesture of Trumpian tactlessness from the “chainsaw” president. Spain has a king, a prime minister and a parliament, but Milei only had private and partisan meetings. Efforts to meet with the monarch Felipe VI proved fruitless “for scheduling issues.”
International politics can be even more complex than national politics, and there is protocol that must be abided by on all sides. So even if you will not meet with officials of the host country, it is a whole other level to publicly insult them — and that’s just what Milei has done, accusing the wife of Sánchez, who is under investigation, of “corruption.”
The crassness and timing of such a statement has the seal of a particular political family — from Bolsonaro to Trump to Orban —that makes a point of publicly stirring the pot around the world.
Online hooliganism
Partisans of such conduct keep saying they’re speaking up for freedom and common folk! If they are rude — or even violent — it’s only in the face of a leftist élite that has become oppressively insufferable.
Is it so hard to understand that once elected to office, you must amend your conduct before the world?
It is a type of rhetorical hooliganism that began online, and seems to have yielded socio-political and electoral fruits, before moving into the physical realm and diplomatic sphere. But is it so difficult to understand that once elected to office, you must amend your conduct before the world? Surely, even a teenaged gamer can see that.
What is wrong with campaigning abroad on behalf of your allies, one might ask? Socialists and communists (like the ones Milei says attend Davos every year) appear to do it, but have they done it while in office? It’s part of the evolving spirit of our time — the zeitgeist — if this isn’t too grand a description of trash talking at the taxpayer’s expense.
Cold shoulders
Milei’s defense of unfettered freedom has costs and consequences, including now a downgrading of diplomatic ties with Spain, which has recalled its ambassador. Both governments want apologies for various comments thrown at each other (including Milei calling Sánchez an “incompetent, lying coward”¨). Even the EU foreign policy chief (the socialist) Josep Borrell and Spanish business leaders have slammed Milei’s discourse, which could end up putting ties in deep-freeze for some years.
There is no statesmanship here, only ramshackle diplomacy.
It’s not just Spain though. Milei has already said he hopes Donald Trump will return to office after U.S. elections in November. He seems to lack a coherent diplomacy to complement his ambitious plans for the Argentinian economy. One is reminded of his socialist predecessor, Alberto Fernández, who never met with Brazil’s conservative president, Jair Bolsonaro, for ideological reasons, regardless of the economic benefits for the country by doing so.
The cold shoulders have continued with Milei and Brazil’s new leftist president, Lula da Silva, whom Milei once called “a crooked communist.” He has written to him twice, and is waiting for a reply!
There is no statesmanship here, only ramshackle diplomacy or taking the lowest form of local politics to the next, disastrous level.
*Lohlé, a former diplomat, has served as Argentina’s ambassador in Brazil, Spain and the Organization of American States.
