This Happened — May 8: Gandhi Fast Begins

-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.

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.