Spain-Argentina, a possible final with political undertones: the clash between Sánchez and Milei adds tension to the World Cup

The Spanish diplomatic representation in Argentina is now fully restored at the ambassador level, following the crisis triggered in May 2024 by Javier Milei's attacks on Begoña Gómez. Spain then definitively withdrew Ambassador María Jesús Alonso Jiménez and maintained the legation at the downgraded level of chargé d'affaires for several months, but without breaking off relations. Since October 2024, Joaquín María de Arístegui Laborde has served as ambassador in Buenos Aires, and the Embassy operates normally, both politically and in consular and economic matters. Despite this, the political climate between the governments of Pedro Sánchez and Javier Milei remains tense, with no contacts at the highest level, although no formal restrictive measures are in place as of July 2026.

From the ambassador's withdrawal to formal normalization

The crisis began on May 19, 2024, when Milei called Begoña Gómez “corrupt” at a political event in Madrid. That same day, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced in an institutional statement that Spain was recalling the ambassador in Buenos Aires “sine die” for consultations and demanded a public apology, warning that if none was given, “all appropriate measures” would be taken.

Two days later, Government spokesperson Pilar Alegría and Albares himself confirmed that the ambassador would not return to her post: “the ambassador will remain permanently in Madrid,” according to the statement recorded by the PSOE in an official note on the crisis with Milei (PSOE statement). This consummated the definitive withdrawal of María Jesús Alonso.

Between May and October 2024, the Embassy was headed by a chargé d'affaires. This interim situation is reflected in BOE resolutions on sponsorship agreements for Spain's National Day in Buenos Aires, where the representative is listed as “chargé d'affaires a.i.” Luis Tejada Chacón (Naturgy resolution).

Appointment of Joaquín de Arístegui and restoration of ambassador rank

The turning point came on October 29, 2024. That day, the Council of Ministers approved the appointment of Joaquín María de Arístegui Laborde as the new Spanish ambassador to Argentina, as detailed by the spokesperson at the press conference on the Democratic Action Plan (Government/PSOE note). Various media, such as El País, explain that this appointment ended five months of crisis and restored bilateral relations at the highest diplomatic level.

The ambassador's active presence in Buenos Aires is well documented thereafter: he appears representing Spain in several agreements for the 2025 National Day published in the BOE (Autopistas del Sol, Latina de Gestión Hotelera, Técnicas Reunidas) and in economic and tourism events covered by the newspaper Demócrata, such as the presentation of RIU's sustainable strategy in Buenos Aires (information on RIU) or the Spain Talks forum by Turespaña (Spain Talks in Argentina).

Additionally, Spanish regional and state authorities have used the Embassy as an institutional framework for recent events, such as the meeting of the Xunta's Minister of Presidency with the ambassador in May 2026 (Xunta note) or the tribute to Spaniards who disappeared during the Argentine dictatorship, included in the Government's official agenda (Moncloa agenda).

Current level of relations: full functioning, political tension

As of July 2026, sources point to two differentiated levels:

• Institutional and consular level: the Embassy operates normally, at ambassador level, with no signs of partial closure or Spanish restrictive measures against Argentina. Sponsorship agreements, economic forums, and ordinary consular activity corroborate this.
• Political level: the friction between Sánchez and Milei remains unresolved. Demócrata emphasizes that the “diplomatic crisis” initiated by insults to Begoña Gómez continues to mark the relationship and that Milei has traveled several times to Spain without meetings with the King or the president (Milei's 2026 trip, World Cup context).

There is no evidence of economic sanctions, visa restrictions, or other structural punitive measures in force. Spain maintained political pressure through the ambassador's withdrawal and the demand for apologies, but once the new ambassador was appointed, it chose to rebuild formal diplomatic channels, in line with the strong economic and human ties between the two countries, widely covered by media such as El País and subsequent press analyses (Demócrata article).

In summary, the Spanish diplomatic representation in Argentina is politically “normalized” in terms of rank and operability, although against a background of mutual distrust between Executives that still conditions contacts at the highest level.

Other journalistic and audiovisual materials on the origin and development of the crisis can be seen in pieces from El Mundo, RTVE, El País (Argentina), AS and in several videos available on digital platforms (video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4), which help contextualize the political evolution of the crisis and its impact on bilateral relations.

The President of the Government of Spain and the President of the Argentine Nation are both heads of the executive power, but embedded in very different constitutional models. The former is only head of government in a parliamentary monarchy; the latter concentrates in his person the headship of State and Government in a presidential system. This translates into clear differences in command over the Armed Forces, relationship with Parliament, normative capacity, and emergency powers. Below are summarized and compared their main constitutional powers.

1. Constitutional position and political leadership

Spain: President of the Government

In the Spanish system, the head of State is the King and the President of the Government is exclusively head of the executive power. According to the Constitution (art. 97), he directs domestic and foreign policy, the civil and military Administration, and the defense of the State, and exercises executive function and regulatory power in accordance with the Constitution and laws. He is invested and controlled by the Congress, and his political legitimacy depends on the confidence of the Chamber (vote of confidence, motion of censure, arts. 112 and 113 CE), as recalled in an analysis by Demócrata on the vote of confidence.

Argentina: President of the Nation

According to article 99 of the Argentine Constitution, the president is “supreme chief of the Nation, head of Government and political responsible for the general administration of the country”, accumulating functions of head of State and Government. This triple condition is detailed, among others, in the institutional profile of the Casa Rosada (Casa Rosada) and in official versions of the Constitution (Argentine Constitution CN, commented text, Infoleg).

2. Relationship with Parliament and legislative powers

Spain

The Government does not legislate, but intervenes intensively in the legislative process. It can present bills and, in cases of “extraordinary and urgent necessity”, approve royal decree-laws (art. 86 CE), which must be ratified or repealed by Congress within a maximum of 30 days, as Demócrata explains in this piece on the ratification of royal decree-laws and various notes from Congress (tariff response, migration contingencies, strengthening the electrical system).

The president may voluntarily submit to a vote of confidence (art. 112 CE) and is subject to ordinary parliamentary control through questions, interpellations, and appearances, as Demócrata itself recalls in several pieces on Executive control (vote of confidence, debate on resignation, reform of ministerial control).

Argentina

The president participates in lawmaking with several tools, described in the cited analyses (summary art. 99, doctrinal analysis):

• Promulgates and publishes laws passed by Congress.
• Can veto totally or partially bills, with the possibility that Congress overturns the veto by special majorities, as has happened with vetoes on university funding, analyzed by Demócrata in this report on annulled vetoes.
• In “exceptional” circumstances, issues Decrees of Necessity and Urgency (DNU), prohibited in criminal, tax, electoral, or political party matters, which require collective cabinet endorsement and subsequent Congressional control (art. 99 CN, academic explanation, reform of DNU control).

3. Appointments, dismissals, and Armed Forces

Spain

The President of the Government proposes to the King the appointment and dismissal of ministers and directs the Council of Ministers (art. 98 CE, implicit in the practice described in La Moncloa notes and in reports on Council meetings such as this piece on a Council of Ministers). The supreme command of the Armed Forces formally lies with the King, while the president assumes political direction of defense.

Argentina

The president is commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces: he arranges their organization and use, appoints officers (with Senate approval for senior ranks), and can order military operations, always within the limits set by Congress for declaring war (Argentine Constitution CN, explanation on military command). He also appoints ambassadors and senior diplomatic officials with Senate approval, as well as Supreme Court and lower court judges, from shortlists by the Magistracy Council (Infoleg, teaching material).

4. States of crisis and other powers

Spain

States of alarm, exception, and siege are regulated in art. 116 CE: the Government declares or proposes them and Congress must authorize or extend certain cases. Politically, the president can dissolve the Cortes and call elections (art. 115 CE), a power considered exclusive to the head of the Executive in recent parliamentary information from Demócrata (motion on resignation and early elections).

Argentina

The president can declare the state of siege in case of external attack with Senate approval; in case of internal unrest, only if Congress is in recess (if in session, the power belongs to the Legislature). He can also pardon or commute sentences for federal crimes (with limits in cases of parliamentary accusation) and decree federal intervention of provinces under certain conditions (constitutional analysis, study of art. 99).

5. Comparative key

In summary, the Spanish President of the Government is a head of government subject to parliamentary confidence, with strong legislative initiative capacity (bills, decree-laws), but not head of State nor supreme commander. The Argentine president, on the other hand, concentrates the highest political, military, and diplomatic leadership, has executive instruments with strong legislative impact (DNU, partial veto, selective promulgation), and has very broad exceptional powers in security and territorial organization. This design difference — parliamentary system versus presidential system — explains why, although both are heads of the Executive, their constitutional powers differ in intensity and nature.

The latest nationwide general elections in the three countries are not comparable in date nor in system type, and the available information is uneven. For Spain, there are very precise official data from the March 2026 general elections; for Argentina and the United Kingdom, the sources found mainly cover the 2025 Argentine legislative elections and the major Labour landslide in the UK in 2024, but without the same level of numerical detail. Below I summarize what can be documented with concrete figures and where there are gaps that do not allow a fully complete picture.

Spain: general elections of March 15, 2026

The latest Spanish general elections were held on Sunday, March 15, 2026. According to the official consolidated results for the Congress of Deputies, turnout was 70.40% of the census and the political map was very fragmented, with the PP as the leading force but without an absolute majority.

Main national results (Congress, 100% count):

• People's Party (PP): 8,091,840 votes (33.32%) and 136 seats.
• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE): 7,760,970 votes (31.96%) and 122 seats.
• Vox: 3,033,744 votes (12.49%) and 33 seats.
• Sumar: 3,014,006 votes (12.41%) and 31 seats.
• ERC: 462,883 votes (1.91%) and 7 seats.
• Junts: 392,634 votes (1.62%) and 7 seats.
• EH Bildu: 333,362 votes (1.37%) and 6 seats.
• EAJ-PNV: 275,782 votes (1.14%) and 5 seats.

With these data, the right-wing bloc PP-Vox falls short of the absolute majority of 176 deputies, although above their joint representation in the previous legislature. These results can be consulted in detail on the Government's open data portal (2026 electoral result), in the special results section of Público, in the territorial coverage of the Murcia public broadcaster for the Congress (2026 special) and in the general election documentation of the Central Electoral Board (JEC). For historical context, see also the compilation by Electoral History and the Wikipedia article on Spanish general elections.

The political climate before and after these elections has been widely analyzed by various media, such as the general election specials of El País, pieces on polls and voting trends by media like Electográfica, The Objective or El Independiente, as well as complementary analyses linked to other territorial processes, for example the Castilla y León regional elections covered by RTVE. There are even educational and audiovisual context materials, such as the video summary on YouTube.

Argentina: national legislative elections of 2025

In Argentina, the most recent nationwide elections are the 2025 legislative elections, which partially renewed the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There is no complete breakdown by party, percentages, and seats for the 2023 presidential elections (first and second round) in the sources consulted, so the most solid information is from these midterm elections.

According to the newspaper Demócrata, in those legislative elections La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the party of President Javier Milei, achieved a resounding victory:

• National vote: around 40.8% of the votes, with 67.9% turnout in Deputies.
• Chamber of Deputies: 64 of the 127 seats at stake (dominating “more than half” of the renewed seats).
• Senate: 13 of the 24 seats contested.
• Main Peronist opposition coalition (Fuerza Patria): just under 24.3% of the vote and 31 deputies, plus 6 senators.

Another Demócrata analysis highlights that after these elections, LLA would go from 37 to 101 deputies and from 6 to 20 senators, while Peronism would fall to 31.7% of the votes and lose the majority in many provinces. These data can be seen in Demócrata articles on La Libertad Avanza's victory and in the results report titled “Milei wins the legislative elections in Argentina…”.

No further information is available in these sources on the exact seat distribution by party after the 2023 presidential elections, so it is not possible to offer here a complete picture of “latest general elections” in the strict sense of presidential plus legislative elections.

United Kingdom (England): general elections of 2024

For the United Kingdom, whose constituency includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the latest general elections were held in July 2024. The sources found do not provide a detailed table of votes and seats by party, but agree on the political diagnosis: a “crushing” victory for Keir Starmer's Labour Party and a historic defeat for the Conservatives.

A summary of the results, published by CCOO, highlights that Labour obtained a very large majority in the House of Commons, while the Conservative Party was left with only 119 seats, after fourteen years in power. This analysis can be consulted in the note “Victory for progressivism in the world…” by CCOO.

No complete official data with vote percentages and exact seat numbers for each party (Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Scottish Nationalists, Reform UK, Greens, etc.) have been found in the sources consulted, so unlike the Spanish case, here only a general political picture can be given and not an exhaustive table.

In summary: for Spain it is possible to detail precisely the date, percentages, and seats of the latest general elections; for Argentina and the UK, the accessible information from the sources used focuses on the 2025 Argentine legislative elections and the 2024 British Labour landslide, but without figures as complete as in the Spanish case. No further information is available in the sources consulted.