Ayuso does not invite Feijóo to the delivery of the Madrid Medal to Javier Milei

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will not attend the presentation of the Madrid International Medal to the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, this Friday. Sources from the party leadership have confirmed that the Community of Madrid chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso has not invited him to the event, although they emphasize that Feijóo does not usually attend regional or local events in Madrid, except for the official party that is held every 2 of May.

The president of Argentina will land in the next few hours in Madrid for his second visit to Spain since he was elected. Milei is not going on an official trip this time either: she does not plan to meet with anyone from the Government or with Felipe VI. Although the Argentine president tried to have the king receive him, Zarzuela has not included any event with Milei in the head of state’s official agenda.

Milei’s first trip to Spain was aimed at attending a political event by the far-right party Vox, an international ally of the Argentine president. On that occasion, less than a month before the European elections, the South American president attacked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and his wife, Begoña Gómez. Weeks before, the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente, joked about the “substances” that Milei takes.

The controversy sparked a tough diplomatic confrontation that continues today. Spain called its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations, and relations between the governments of both countries are broken.

The second visit of the Argentine president to Spain in just a month aims to collect two awards. One, granted by the ultraliberal organization Juan de Mariana. The businessman who promotes “the Freedom Dinner” with Milei, Fernando Monera, will not only charge admission to attend the event, which he will use as an exhibitor for his courses, but one of his companies obtains millionaire income from the Administration. Open Sistemas appears among the 6,000 companies that received the most public aid in Spain in 2021, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Ayuso, in defense of Milei

But the highlight of Milei’s visit to Spain will be the presentation of the Madrid International Medal, which she will receive from the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “It is an honor to receive the legitimate president elected, yes, by a large majority at the polls by the people of Argentina,” said the Madrid president this Thursday in the Plenary Session of the Madrid Assembly.

The regional president has hid behind the amnesty law to justify her decision to decorate a foreign leader who has an open crisis with Spain and who has insulted the President of the Government. In an interview with the Argentine group Clarín radio, she defended him again. “It gives confidence and attraction for investment and for companies, and therefore for prosperity.”

Ayuso has not officially notified the Government of Milei’s arrival in Madrid, nor of the events that it has organized for him, despite the fact that this is ordered by the Foreign Action Law, as reported this Thursday by the Executive. However, the PP has defended its right to invite the Argentine president: “The president of Madrid acts within the framework of her powers.”

The event will be held this Friday, but Feijóo is not invited to it. The leader of the PP celebrated the victory of Javier Milei and applauded that Argentines voted for “change”, although the economic and social debacle caused by ultraliberal policies have silenced the party’s praise for the South American president. Except those of the PP of Madrid.

The one who will not attend the medal ceremony is the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida. Sources from the Mayor’s Office have assured elDiario.es that “there is no record” of an invitation in this regard.

Tomorrow is the second consecutive official event from which Feijóo will be absent, after the King’s House did not extend an invitation to the opposition leader for the events celebrating the tenth anniversary of the coronation of Felipe VI. Zarzuela assured that there was no invitation because the protocol was limited to “state powers and constitutional bodies.”