The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has claimed the achievements of the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid despite the disagreements existing within the community, which, as he has warned, is "more polarized than ever." At the same time, he has expressed confidence that the "wave" which, he said, "starts in Brazil" and "continues in the United States" will "also continue" in Spain.
In an interview with El País published this Monday, Albares was asked about the low presence of heads of State and Government at the Madrid meeting. In response, the head of Foreign Affairs emphasized that "a summit is measured by its results."
Among these advances, he has mentioned the approval of a new Ibero-American cooperation strategy, the creation of an alliance in the area of artificial intelligence, a common mechanism for responding to natural disasters, and the launch of a space for academic mobility to facilitate the recognition of degrees, "a kind of Ibero-American Erasmus."
The minister has also indicated that importance has been given to the care economy and has stressed that, according to the Ibero-American Secretary General and the majority of the participating countries, this has been "the most important summit since the foundational one."
Regarding Argentine President Javier Milei, Albares has recalled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an official statement "making it very clear" its position. In that text, he specified, it was stated that "it is not worthy of the highest office of a sister Republic" to address "in that way" and insult the President of the Government, the Spanish institutions, and the Spanish people.
Albares has emphasized that Spain has served as the secretariat and chair of the Ibero-American community and that the Government's foreign action seeks "unity, consensus, cooperation, dialogue." "We never use foreign policy to do domestic politics," he has stressed.
In relation to the possible effect of the results in the United States and Brazil on elections in Spain, the minister has noted that in the country "a little is aired of what is being aired in all elections." He has described a model, that of the progressive coalition Government, "centered on the people," with increases in pensions and the minimum wage, a "historic" endowment of scholarships and economic growth "very higher than that of Germany and France and that of the rest of the EU."
He has added that this model is based on tolerance, equality, respect for international law and multilateralism, as well as on rejecting war as a tool of foreign policy. Facing it, he has placed another that "believes in confrontation" and that considers that, in the face of international law, "the law of the strongest has to be in place."
"These are two very different models. I'm sure that this wave that starts in Brazil, continues in the United States, will continue in Spain," he has emphasized.
Finally, when asked about the 160,000 naturalized people whose right to vote was suspended under the grandchildren law, Albares pointed out that external suffrage is "very minor," both in terms of the number of people entitled to vote and in terms of effective participation, which "doesn't even reach 10%." He clarified that its electoral impact is "below 1%" and that in 2023 only one seat was changed, one that had belonged to the PSOE and went to the PP. "It poses no risk and no threat to electoral integrity," he concluded.