Pedro Sánchez and Javier Milei exchanged a brief, cold handshake in Madrid on Thursday before the Argentine president used his address to the Ibero-American Summit to equate socialism with fascism and attack progressive political agendas in Europe.
The encounter at the Royal Collections Gallery brought the two leaders face to face after Milei’s recent insults against the Spanish prime minister. Although the Argentine president avoided naming Sánchez in his summit speech, his remarks renewed the ideological confrontation between the two governments. ALSO READ: Milei calls Sánchez a ‘disgraceful dictator’ and urges Spaniards to oust PSOE.
Milei greeted King Felipe VI with a smile before exchanging a noticeably more restrained handshake with Sánchez. No bilateral meeting between the Spanish and Argentine leaders was scheduled.
Milei attacks socialism and European progressive agendas
Addressing the summit’s plenary session, Milei invoked the Spanish writer and diplomat Salvador de Madariaga, saying that he had warned that ‘socialism is fascist in politics and fascism is socialist in economics’.
The Argentine president argued that both doctrines ‘concentrate control over individual decisions in the hands of a minority and make economic dependence an instrument of political domination’.
‘That equivalence between socialism and fascism is no coincidence; they share a hatred of the free market,’ he said.
Milei also challenged the conventional distinction between the two ideologies, asserting that ‘the fact that fascist movements are to the right of the far left does not mean they cease to be socialist’.
His criticism extended to contemporary European politics. Referring to the ambitions of fascist state control, he argued that they ‘remain alive in those agendas that call themselves progressive and are gaining ground in Europe’.
Spanish media reported that Milei delivered a prepared speech rather than improvising. He did not repeat his recent personal insults against Sánchez, but his references to European progressive movements extended his attack to the political tradition represented by Spain’s socialist-led government.
A strained encounter after previous insults
The handshake followed another contentious visit to Madrid in October, when Milei called Sánchez an ‘disgraceful dictator’ during an address to business leaders. His appearance at the summit therefore placed diplomatic protocol against the backdrop of an unresolved political dispute. ALSO READ: Argentina’s Milei insults Pedro Sánchez again, referring to him as a ‘local bandit’.
Milei had arrived in the Spanish capital on Wednesday but did not attend either the summit’s official opening at the Teatro Real or the dinner hosted by the king and queen at the Royal Palace. Instead, he met that evening with Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party and a close political ally. ALSO READ: Argentine President Javier Milei makes new attack on Spain’s Pedro Sánchez.
His participation in Thursday’s plenary brought him together with Sánchez, whose address offered a markedly different view of how governments should respond to international divisions.
Sánchez urges cooperation amid growing divisions
The Spanish prime minister called for stronger cooperation in the face of national retrenchment and unilateralism, arguing that Ibero-American countries should help shape international decisions despite their political differences.
‘We must have the ambition to take part in the world’s decisions, contribute our own answers, defend our own vision of the world. This is the ambition that must accompany us in the coming years,’ Sánchez said.
He identified the ecological transition and economic transformation as challenges requiring shared responses, presenting cooperation as a means for the region to exert greater influence in an increasingly fragmented world.
Felipe VI also appealed for unity. Using a musical metaphor, the king asked participating leaders to ‘stick to the score’ so that their different instruments could produce a harmonious result. He stressed that the community’s institutions should ultimately serve citizens’ needs.
Milei’s subsequent intervention exposed the depth of the ideological differences behind those appeals, with his defence of free markets and denunciation of progressive politics contrasting with Sánchez’s emphasis on collective action.
Summit seeks agreement despite political differences
The confrontation provided a politically charged backdrop to the 30th Ibero-American Summit, which brings together representatives of 22 countries but has attracted only 10 of their top leaders.
Among the most prominent absentees were Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose delegations were headed by their foreign ministers.
A central objective of the meeting was to secure a joint declaration after the previous summit, held in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 2024, ended without an agreed statement — the first such failure since the forum began in 1991.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Thursday that the 22 foreign ministers had reached agreement on the text of the Madrid Declaration the previous day. It still required ratification by the summit.
According to RTVE, negotiations had been complicated by disagreements over the US embargo on Cuba, gender equality and sustainable development.
Alongside the political declaration, delegations were considering cooperation initiatives covering artificial intelligence, disaster response, university exchanges and care policies. Argentina and Paraguay had already declined to join an artificial intelligence alliance supported by the other 20 countries.
For the Spanish hosts, the task was to turn appeals for unity into practical agreements. The cold Sánchez–Milei greeting and the Argentine president’s speech illustrated the political divisions that effort must overcome.
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Así ha sido el saludo entre Javier Milei y Pedro Sánchez en la Cumbre Iberoamericana https://t.co/YG2YEjG94v https://t.co/azQDDJPRqb
— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) November 5, 2026
Frente a quienes se cierran, nosotros debemos abrirnos. Frente a quienes levantan muros, nosotros debemos construir alianzas. Frente a los que alimentan la guerra nosotros debemos ser sembradores de paz. Ese es el objetivo de este espacio iberoamericano: construir alianzas más fuertes, más ambiciosas y con mayor peso en el mundo.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) November 4, 2026
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