King Felipe VI and Claudia Sheinbaum to meet this week in Mexico to end diplomatic crisis

Eduardo González King Felipe VI will be received this week by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, just over a year and a half after the diplomatic crisis erupted between the two countries following the president's decision to exclude the King from her inauguration for not apologizing for the Spanish conquest. In October 2014, Claudia Sheinbaum decided to exclude 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 this decision "unacceptable" and announced that it would not participate in the inauguration "at any level." The event was attended by members of Sumar, the junior partner in the coalition government, in their personal capacity. The King represents Spain at the inaugurations of Ibero-American presidents, a task that King Felipe has been performing since 1996 when he was still Prince of Asturias. Specifically, the Monarch was present in 2018 at the inauguration of Sheinbaum's predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The situation began to change a year later, on October 31, 2025, when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, referred during an event to the “pain and injustice suffered by indigenous peoples,” which “is also part of our shared history and we cannot deny or forget it.” Those words, which were discreetly praised by Sheinbaum, outraged the People's Party, which demanded Albares's resignation “if he does not retract his statement immediately.” The next step came in mid-March, when the King acknowledged—during a visit to an exhibition accompanied by the Mexican ambassador, Quirino Ordaz—that there had been “much abuse” by the Spanish during the colonial period. The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, fully endorsed the Monarch's words, while the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, simply expressed his “pride in the Spanish legacy.” The following day, Claudia Sheinbaum praised the King's gesture. In this atmosphere of détente, the Mexican government sent a letter to the Zarzuela Palace in February inviting the King to attend the World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The Royal Household received the letter “with pleasure” as it exemplified the “fraternal relationship” between the two countries, and on May 18, King Felipe VI officially announced his acceptance of the invitation. King Felipe VI will attend the group stage match between Uruguay and Spain on June 26 at the Guadalajara Stadium (Jalisco). On April 18, the Mexican president visited Spain to participate in the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy and the Global Progressive Mobilization event, both held in Barcelona. During that visit, her first to Spain since the diplomatic crisis, Sheinbaum held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Eleven days later, as part of a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean that included Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, José Manuel Albares delivered an invitation from King Felipe VI to Claudia Sheinbaum to attend the upcoming Ibero-American Summit, to be held in Madrid in November. Last Thursday, during her usual morning press conference, Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the King will take advantage of his attendance at the World Cup to visit the capital and announced that, during their meeting, they will discuss "the indigenous peoples, the importance of indigenous communities in Mexico throughout history, from before the arrival of the Spanish to the present day, and the value they represent for the country, among other things." She also emphasized that relations between Spain and Mexico "had not been broken," but that "this reunion" is an opportunity "to exchange opinions, smooth over any differences, and achieve something more." The following day, the Royal Household announced in its weekly agenda that “King Felipe will meet with the President of the United Mexican States on Thursday, June 25,” at the National Palace in Mexico City, at the invitation of Sheinbaum. For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs specified that the King will travel to Mexico City and Guadalajara on June 25, 26, and 27, accompanied by José Manuel Albares and the Minister of Education, Vocational Training, and Sports, Milagros Tolón. “This trip is part of an intensification of bilateral relations between both countries, which share the common space of the Ibero-American Community of Nations, and reinforces the close ties and affinity that unite both peoples,” the Ministry and the Royal Household stated. Álvarez de Toledo and Díaz Ayuso Aside from Albares and the First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo (who was received by Claudia Sheinbauma in early June), the most talked-about Spanish political visits have been those made by two prominent representatives of the People's Party: the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Member of Parliament, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo. These two visits, within a month of each other, between May and June, generated considerable controversy in the country. On the one hand, Díaz Ayuso participated in an event in Mexico City entitled "Celebration of Evangelization and Mestizaje in Mexico: Malinche and Cortés," in which she paid homage to the figure of the conquistador Hernán Cortés and to the "five centuries of mestizaje" between Spain and Mexico, characterized by "hope, joy, and alliances" in contrast to the "divisive rhetoric of hate." The day after these remarks, Sheinbaum declared: “To those who revive the Conquest as salvation, we say: you are destined for defeat. To those who believe the people are foolish: you are destined for defeat. Those who seek to vindicate Hernán Cortés and his atrocities: you are destined for defeat,” she affirmed. Meanwhile, Álvarez de Toledo, deputy spokesperson for the Popular Parliamentary Group in Congress, gave a lecture at the University of Liberty in Mexico City, in which she questioned the “national sovereignty” of Mexico, a country facing “three internal threats: organized crime, authoritarian populism, and a dependency mentality.”

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