Claudia Sheinbaum to hold brief meeting with Pedro Sánchez in Barcelona

Eduardo González Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will hold a brief meeting in Barcelona with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on the sidelines of the 4th Meeting in Defense of Democracy and the Global Progressive Mobilization event, according to sources at Moncloa Palace and confirmed by Sheinbaum herself. The Mexican president will participate this Saturday in the 4th Meeting in Defense of Democracy, co-organized by Sánchez and Brazilian President Lula da Silva, and attended by a dozen left-leaning heads of state and government. Afterward, she will attend the Global Progressive Mobilization event, organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which will be closed by Sánchez and Lula. According to sources at Moncloa Palace, although it is not a bilateral visit as such, and despite the tight schedule, Sheinbaum will hold a brief meeting with Sánchez. The same sources emphasized the importance of the Mexican president's presence, given her relatively infrequent international engagements. In fact, this is her first trip to Europe since taking office. Furthermore, Sheinbaum herself has told Mexican media that she will have a meeting in Barcelona with Pedro Sánchez and her counterparts from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Colombia, Gustavo Petro; and Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi. This is her first visit to Mexico since the diplomatic crisis that arose in October 2014 when the Mexican president excluded King Felipe VI from the guest list for her inauguration because he had not responded to a letter from his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The Spanish government called the decision “unacceptable” and announced it would not participate in the inauguration “at any level.” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters in New York that “the Spanish government considers Mexico a brother country,” and therefore, it is “absolutely unacceptable to exclude the presence of our head of state, a head of state who, incidentally, has participated in every inauguration, both as Prince and since becoming King.” Amid the controversy, Claudia Sheinbaum stated in a press release that the King had been excluded from the guest list because he had not responded to a letter from Andrés Manuel López Obrador urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The president-elect clarified that Sánchez, with whom she had spoken “about the matter,” had been invited. In his meeting with the media in New York, the Prime Minister declined to comment on this detail. In mid-March, Claudia Sheinbaum praised King Felipe VI's gesture, who the day before had acknowledged that there had been "much abuse" by the Spanish during the colonial period. For his part, Pedro Sánchez fully endorsed the monarch's words, and the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, expressed his pride in the Spanish legacy in the Americas and pointed out that the King's remarks were made "in a conversation, not in an official address." That same week, Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the King of Spain had been invited to visit Mexico in June to attend the opening of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but clarified that the invitation had been extended "to all countries with which Mexico has relations."

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