<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The president-elect of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has assured that there will be no break in relations with Spain, but asked for “respect” towards her country. On the other hand, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has described as “logical” the reaction of Pedro Sánchez’s Government after the exclusion of Felipe VI in the inauguration of Sheinbaum, but reminded her that in the crisis with Argentina he withdrew the Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires.</strong></h4> In a meeting with the press, Sheinbaum was asked this Wednesday if her future Government would consider a break in relations with Spain: “No, how do you think? But we need respect. That’s all,” she limited herself to answering, reported by the local press. Last Tuesday, the Government of Spain described as “unacceptable” the exclusion of King Felipe VI from the invitation to the inauguration of the elected president of Mexico and announced, through a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that “the Government of Spain has decided not to participate in said inauguration at any level.” The following day, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared to the press from New York that “the Government of Spain considers Mexico to be a sister country”, and, therefore, it is “absolutely unacceptable that the presence of our head of state is excluded, a head of state who, by the way, has participated in all the inaugurations, as Prince and also since he is the King”. That same day, Claudia Sheinbaum reported in a statement that the King had been excluded from the list of guests for not having responded to a letter from the outgoing president, Andrés López Obrador, in which he was urged to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The president-elect clarified that, however, Sánchez had been invited, with whom she had had a conversation “on the matter”. In his meeting with the media in New York, the President of the Government did not want to comment on this detail: “I, regarding the personal conversations that I have, in this case with the president-elect of Mexico, am not going to make any statement because they remain within the realm of discretion”. For his part, Andrés Manuel López Obrador took advantage of his daily press conference to show his support for Sheinbaum's decision not to invite the King. "I support the president-elect, if she already has a position, I subscribe to it, I support it, because I have a lot of confidence in her," he declared. In relation to the 2019 letter, López Obrador, like the president-elect, stated that "there was no response, but not only was there no response, but they leaked the letter and unleashed an entire campaign against us." According to the still president, the letter was "respectful and formal" and the Spaniards "acted with great arrogance." According to López Obrador, “it is important to clarify that these differences with the Government of Spain are not with the Spanish people, we are talking about differences with the Spanish monarchy, which was respectfully asked to offer an apology to the indigenous peoples for the atrocities committed during the European invasion of our country.” “What does it cost them to offer an apology? They have already done so in other cases, why not with the indigenous peoples of Mexico?” he asked. In March 2019, Andrés Manuel López Obrador revealed that on the first day of that month he had sent a letter to King Felipe VI in which he proposed that the two countries create a roadmap so that “the Kingdom of Spain publicly and officially expresses the recognition of the grievances caused” during the conquest of Mexico against the “indigenous peoples.” The Government “firmly” rejected the content of the letter. That was the first in a series of diplomatic clashes with López Obrador in relation to the memory of the conquest and the colonial period. Three years later, in February 2022, López Obrador again attacked Spain, proposing to put relations between the two countries “on hold” and launching accusations of “plundering” by Spain. Days later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, travelled to Mexico, where he declared that the two countries have a “privileged relationship” and claimed that he did not know the meaning of the “pause” in relations announced by the president. <h5><strong>Feijóo</strong></h5> For his part, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, declared this Thursday that the Government's response to this situation has been "logical", because both López Obrador and his successor have resorted to "an unacceptable provocation" between two countries that, "despite them, will continue to be brothers in the future." "I regret that diplomacy has failed to redirect the situation. Having noted its failure, the reaction has been logical," he declared during the closing of the FAES 2024 Campus, accompanied by the former President of the Government José María Aznar, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola; and the Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González. "There was no other option," he added, quoted by Europa Press. However, Feijóo regretted that the response had been so different from that after the harsh statements in Madrid by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, against Sánchez and his wife, Begoña Gómez. “It is sad to see Mr Sánchez once again focus on whether he likes the government of another country or not in order to defend Spanish institutions,” he said. “And it is unacceptable that, for the Government, there are more reasons to withdraw an ambassador for a comment at a rally about the president's wife than for the lack of respect for the head of state,” added Feijóo, who wanted to make it clear that he was not asking “in any case for the Spanish ambassador to be withdrawn in Mexico.” “On the contrary, I am asking for a new Spanish ambassador to be appointed in Argentina,” he added. Meanwhile, the Podemos MEP and former Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, announced this Thursday through the social network X that she will attend the investiture of Claudia Sheinbaum together with her party's co-spokesperson Javier Sánchez Serna. “We are sister peoples and despite the Spanish monarchy we must build relationships based on mutual respect and human rights,” she said.
