The journey of Javier Milei to Spain ended without the image that the Argentine president had been seeking for some time: a bilateral meeting with Felipe VI at the Palacio de la Zarzuela. The absence of that meeting has shaped the assessment of his visit to Madrid and has led several Argentine media outlets to interpret his trip through the Spanish capital as a diplomatic setback, despite his participation in the XXX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government.
The Argentine press has focused on the impossibility of Milei being received alone by the monarch. The newspaper Clarín emphasized that the Argentine president had been looking for that photograph for some time. For its part, La Nación explained that the Casa Real had conveyed a condition in order to make the meeting possible: he also had to meet with Pedro Sánchez, a possibility that the Argentine leader had publicly ruled out.
The issue was not minor for Milei. This was his eighth visit to Spain and the first one linked to an institutional appointment of a multilateral nature. In his previous trips, the president had mainly attended political events, conferences, and meetings with representatives of Vox, without an official meeting taking place with the head of the Spanish State.
The condition of the Casa Real and Sánchez’s role
The explanation for the breakdown in relations lies in Spanish institutional protocol. According to what La Nación published on October 21, the Casa Real reminded the Argentine government that the usual practice in visits by heads of State to Spain is that the meeting with Felipe VI is accompanied by a meeting with the president of the Government. The information suggested that Milei had informally expressed his interest in meeting the monarch, but was not willing to hold a meeting with Sánchez.
Milei had informally expressed his interest in meeting the monarch, but was not willing to hold a meeting with Sánchez
The relationship between the two presidents is going through one of its most tense moments since 2024, when Milei accused Begoña Gómez of corruption, the executive leader’s wife, during a Vox event in Madrid. The diplomatic crisis then led Spain to temporarily withdraw its ambassador in Buenos Aires. Since then, the Argentine leader’s verbal attacks against Sánchez have been repeated in different settings.
Milei himself again took aim at the Spanish president during his speech at the Nueva Economía Fórum, held in Madrid on October 21. There he described him as "impresentable dictator" and of "corrupt", while also calling for the socialists to be removed from power in the general elections. Statements that highlighted the political distance between the two and made any gesture of institutional rapprochement difficult.
Clarín, however, introduces a nuance about the role of the Spanish Government in the absence of the meeting. The newspaper asked sources from Moncloa whether Sánchez had vetoed the meeting between Milei and Felipe VI. The answer was that it was not known that the Executive had intervened to prevent it, although they acknowledged that the agenda of the Royal House with foreign leaders is usually agreed with the Government and that meetings not initially scheduled may arise.
Therefore, there is no confirmation that Sánchez personally blocked the audience. What the information does reflect is that the usual protocol placed the meeting with the head of Government as a condition to facilitate the meeting with the king—something that Milei was not willing to accept.
A cold greeting with Sánchez and a lackluster showing
The absence of the photograph with Felipe VI was not the only element that marked the visit. Milei's participation in the Ibero-American Summit was also surrounded by gestures of distance. The Argentine president finally coincided with Sánchez and both greeted each other in the sight of the monarch, in a scene that Página/12 described as a cold encounter, in which he presented the Argentine leader as isolated.
The Argentine newspaper titled its chronicle of November 6 Milei showed himself isolated and could not avoid Sánchez and described his participation in the summit as "lackluster". According to its reading, the president returned without managing to meet the king and with limited support among the leaders present: the newspaper highlighted that only the far-right leaders approached him to greet him, although without any great signs of closeness.
Felipe VI’s agenda during the summit did include meetings with other heads of state. The monarch received at the Royal Palace the presidents of Chile, José Antonio Kast; Honduras, Nasry Asfura; Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, and the president of Costa Rica, Laura Fernández Delgado. He also held a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, after his participation in the plenary session.
For his part, Milei did not attend the opening act of the summit at the Teatro Real nor the gala dinner offered by the kings to the participating heads of government and representatives. The Argentine foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, denied that those absences were a retaliation for the meeting with Felipe VI not having been carried out.