Milei lands in Spain with no photo op for VOX or the PP

Milei lands in Spain and neither VOX nor the PP want the photo

Javier Milei arrives in Spain and the scene has a touch of paradox: the Argentine president, who has made the chainsaw his political trademark, lands in a country where the right that has flirted most with his discourse has shut the door on him. There will be no meeting with Santiago Abascal. Nor with Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Of the heavyweights, only Isabel Díaz Ayuso seemed willing to receive him, and published reports suggest that in the end there will be no photo with the Madrid premier either. The visit is limited to an academic event at the Universidad Juan Carlos I, where his friend Jesús Huerta de Soto awaits him.

The calculation is not ideological. It is electoral. And of the most basic kind.

Why VOX avoids the photo with Milei

The coldest answer comes from the Argentine economic context that Spain's opposition itself cites: **30,000 companies closed** since Milei took power, an increase in unemployment of around **400,000 people**, a labor reform that has pushed wages down, and an inflation that, although it has moderated from the inherited **200%**, has been achieved —according to critics— at the cost of curbing consumption. With that résumé, a photo next to the Argentine president amounts to an awkward headline on the midday news.

Some argue that VOX abandoned economic liberalism long ago to embrace conservatism with flag and banner. The churchgoing voter weighs more than the Economics textbook one. Abascal does not need the Argentine: the scare and the "wolf is coming" are enough for him. And Milei himself is not coming to evangelize anyone, but to sell his story in a friendly forum.

The 70% disapproval nobody wants to import

The figure hovering over the whole affair is the **70% disapproval** rating Milei carries in his country, according to the polls cited in the debate. A percentage that, however, does not prevent him from appearing tied with the Peronist candidate in the surveys. It is antiestéticar or death by the book: a leader who generates majority rejection but retains a hard core large enough to compete.

That profile is toxic for any party with seats at stake in upcoming elections. Spain's right knows it. And that is why the visit has become an almost private affair, with no red carpet or cluster of leaders.

The PSOE banner at Ferraz

While the right hides, the PSOE has found an unexpected gift in the visit. The Ferraz headquarters proge up with a banner reading "The left welcomes you to Spain," a gesture seeking to portray Milei as what the left considers him: a provocateur who deserves no institutional treatment. The move has its logic: every appearance by the Argentine reinforces the socialist narrative that Spain's right flirts with a failed economic experiment.

The paradox is that Pedro Sánchez himself campaigned in 2023 for the Peronist candidate who left behind **200% inflation and 50% poverty**, as the archives recall. Coherence is nobody's strong suit in this play.

What the right loses with this snub

For some, the missed opportunity is obvious: an updated photo of two political animals together, the chat about the "peluca's" economic antiestéticats in Argentina, the chainsaw narrative as a symbol of optimism for the rank and file. All of that goes untold. VOX and the PP, according to the most repeated criticism, are geniuses at shooting themselves in the foot.

But electoral calculation rules. And with 70% disapproval and a record of 30,000 fewer companies, the photo is not worth it.

Would anything have changed if Milei had been received with honors by Spain's right? The answer, like almost everything in politics, depends on whom you ask.