The Spanish government has said that it will be boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum because King Felipe VI has not been invited.
Madrid called the king’s exclusion from the ceremony on 1 October ‘unacceptable’.
‘For this reason, the Spanish government has decided not to participate in the inauguration at any level,’ the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Mexico published the guest list a week ago for Sheinbaum’s inauguration, who will be the country’s first woman president following her left-wing ruling party’s landslide June election victory.
King Felipe VI was not on the list, which includes regional left-leaning leaders, and also US First Lady Jill Biden.
While Mexico and Spain have close historical and economic links, relations between the Latin American nation and its former colonial ruler have been strained since outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – an ally of Sheinbaum – took office in 2018.
Madrid has rejected his demand for an apology for the events of the Spanish conquest five centuries ago.
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