Jose Manuel Albares will go to Congress to defend the government’s decision not to send representation from the Kingdom of Spain to the transfer of powers to Mexico, among other things Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. This was confirmed by this newspaper in official sources of the Foreign Affairs. The minister has the support of the first opposition party, the PP, but not that of his government partner, Sumar.
For the government, it must be understood that for the PSOE – the party to which the president and the Minister of Foreign Affairs belong – the exclusion of the king during the inauguration of the new president of Mexico is “unacceptable”. And according to the document to which EL ESPAÑOL has had access, Albares wants to explain the crisis as quickly as possible before the Cortes.
Before tensions with Mexico became another diplomatic crisisor that the controversy between government and parliamentary partners, The head of Foreign Affairs has asked to appear before Congress to give explanations “on the decisions taken regarding the representation of Spain at the inauguration of the new president of Mexico.”
Podemos and ERC have taken Mexico’s side. The purple secretary general, Ione Belarracame to assure that “the King is a problem in international relations based on respect for human rights.” And Gabriel Rufian, spokesman for the Catalan independentists, mocked it by singing a “Long live Mexico, you bastards!”in the halls of Congress.
Albares presented this request this Wednesday morning, just hours after the announcement of the veto of the Republic of the United Mexican States to the presence of Philip VI chair the Spanish delegation next Tuesday, October 1, at the inauguration of President-elect Sheinbaum. And by decision of the Executive, “there will be no Spanish representation, because it is the head of state who represents Spain at the inaugurations” of Latin American countries. This is how Margarita Robles, Minister of Defense, explained it. “It is unfortunate because Mexico is a sister nation.”
For his part, Borja Always, spokesman for the PP executive, supported the decision of Minister Albares: “It is obvious that if the king is not invited, Spain is not invited.”
Mexico’s official candidate (MORENA party) won the June 3 presidential elections with a landslide victory over the opposition Xóchitl Gálvez. From there, Mexico’s interim president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), assured that the newly elected president could resume bilateral relations, which he had put “on hold” in 2022, accusing Spain of not maintaining “an attitude of respect” with his country.
“Now that the changes are underway, there is an opportunity with President Claudia Sheinbaum“, AMLO said at a conference last July. “She is a very intelligent woman, very respectful, very fraternal and who also knows the history of Mexico and the world.”
For the outgoing president, it was recurring use of Spain as an external enemy since coming to power in December 2018. He had already demanded an apology from Felipe VI for the Spanish conquest more than five centuries ago.
The President He sent a letter to the monarch in March 2019 demanding that “the Spanish State recognize its historical responsibility” in the Offenses committed during the conquest and to “issue an appropriate apology or political compensation,” a request that has never been answered.
This Tuesday, Albares already expressed the Executive’s discomfort to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, during a meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The meeting, with her counterparts from Brazil and Colombia, was aimed at analyzing the situation in Venezuela, another country with which Spain currently has tense relations, after the withdrawal of its ambassador to Spain a few weeks ago.
