“Cowardly” and “corrupt”: Javier Maile insults Pedro Sanchez and his wife and opens a diplomatic crisis between Spain and Argentina – The World

Spain decided, on Tuesday, to “certainly” withdraw its ambassador to Buenos Aires after Argentine President Javier Miley described Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as a “coward,” in a worrying escalation of political and diplomatic tension between the two countries.

The crisis of unprecedented proportions began on Sunday, when Miley, who visited Spain at the invitation of the far-right Vox party, described Sanchez’s wife, Begonia Gomez, as “corrupt” during a rally in Madrid. The Spanish government demanded an immediate apology and recalled its ambassador to Argentina for consultations.

However, instead of backing down, Miley gave a sensational interview to Argentine television, in which he repeated the insults directed at Sanchez’s wife and called the Spanish Prime Minister a “coward” and accused him of “hiding under women’s skirts.” “I’m not going to apologise. I’m the one who was attacked,” Miley said, recalling the numerous occasions when Spanish politicians accused him of being a “xenophobe, a racist, a Nazi, a science denier, a misogynist,” or, as Spain’s transport minister, Oscar Puente, suggested, “a Material consumption.” He also belittled the Spanish ambassador’s call as “typical socialist nonsense.”

In light of these statements and Miley’s refusal to apologise, the Spanish government decided, on Tuesday, to permanently withdraw its ambassador to Argentina, and threatened to take “additional measures.” One such measure is to declare Miley “persona non grata” and ban her from entering Spain on June 21 to receive an award from the Juan de Mariana Institute. A source from the Madrid government said: “We will see.”