Argentina's Javier Milei back in Spain for possible new Pedro Sánchez showdown

Argentina's President Javier Milei returns to Madrid for an international summit on Wednesday, after stoking fresh tensions with Socialist nemesis Pedro Sánchez by urging Spain to vote the prime minister out.

Far-right Chilean President José Antonio Kast and Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz are the other standout conservatives attending the two-day Ibero-American Summit, hosted by Sanchez weeks before a general election he is predicted to lose.

The 22-nation Ibero-American Community brings together Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries from Europe and the Americas that share historic and cultural ties, comparable to the anglophone Commonwealth headed by British monarch King Charles III.

But the format has lost influence in recent years, and reversing that trend is the key goal of the group's 30th summit.

At the last summit, held in Ecuador in 2024, a historically low four heads of state turned up and the divided participants failed to adopt a final declaration.

This year, the seven Latin American presidents in attendance will illustrate the region's tilt to the right after a slew of electoral victories for allies of US President Donald Trump.

Further complicating the scene for Sánchez is the absence of his leftist allies in Latin America's powerhouses: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Brazil's newly re-elected veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The arrival of a host of right-wing attendees, a week after Spain's second high-speed train collision this year killed 69 people, makes the summit "awkward" for Sánchez, Anna Ayuso, a Latin America expert at Barcelona-based think tank CIDOB, told AFP.

Diplomatic crisis

Milei's presence comes two weeks after a visit to Madrid in which he called Sánchez a "disgraceful dictator" and told Spaniards to "kick out" his Socialists in the November 29 election.

The firebrand libertarian has made several unofficial visits to Spain since becoming Argentina's president in 2023 but has never met Sánchez, instead supporting the conservative and far-right opposition as well as offering long diatribes against socialism.

In response, Sánchez has turned Milei's insults and swingeing cuts to public spending in Argentina into a campaign rallying cry against a "reactionary international" that also includes Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sánchez, in power since 2018, trails in most polls to the main conservative Partido Popular (PP), which is predicted to win the most seats in the election but fall short of a majority.

The kingmaker could therefore be far-right party Vox, with which Milei met in October.

Milei is not expected to meet Sánchez privately or see King Felipe VI during the summit, according to Spanish government sources.

In 2024, a diplomatic crisis erupted after Milei called Sánchez's wife Begona Sánchez "corrupt," prompting Spain to recall its ambassador to Buenos Aires for months.

Spanish government sources say the summit will have accomplished its goal of relaunching the Ibero-American format at a time when conflicts and trade turmoil have undermined international cooperation.

India, Turkey and Angola are new observer countries in the group, alongside the Association of Caribbean States, while UN Secretary General António Guterres and European Council chief Antonio Costa will also attend.

The summit opens with an official ceremony on Wednesday, followed by a plenary session on Thursday.

The final declaration, which is still being negotiated, will notably focus on cooperation on disasters and civil protection as well as artificial intelligence.

The former is especially relevant for the group after Colombia and Venezuela suffered devastating earthquakes this year.