Letter from Spain #51
A good week for ambassadors' Air Miles.
Before the telephone, email or Zoom, recalling an ambassador to their home nation was a way of briefing them on specific matters so that they could return to their post with new instructions which were otherwise too sensitive to entrust to postal services. Nowadays, recalling an ambassador is a political statement to show the discontent of a government with a foreign government.
68-year-old María Jesús Alonso Jiménez, a career diplomat, has previously been the Spanish ambassador in Cameroon, Ghana, the Netherlands, and she had been in Buenos Aires since January 2022, as ambassador in Argentina. I say ‘had’ because since last Monday she’s been back in Madrid, after being recalled by Spain’s Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares. He has since said that she will remain in Madrid ‘definitively’ (or ‘indefinitely’, depending on how you want to interpert his words), and that ‘Argentina will be left without an ambassador’.
Why?
Well, it all kicked off just over a fortnight ago, when Spain’s socialist Transport Minister Oscar Puente suggested in a speech that Javier Milei, president of Argentina and a populist ally of Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, had ‘consumed substances’ during last year’s Argentine elections.
‘I saw Milei on television’ during the campaign, Puente told a socialist party conference. ‘I don’t know if it was before or after the consumption … of substances.’ He also listed Milei among some ‘very bad people’ who have reached high office.
I don’t know about you, but every time I see Milei on TV, I also assume that he’s out of his skull on something, and so I thought Puente’s comments were very true … but I guess he should have kept them to himself, being a Spanish cabinet minister. You can’t say everything out loud … I mean, not like Milei himself.
Within hours, Milei’s office issued an official statement to berate the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, saying that he had ‘bigger problems to deal with’, mentioning the corruption allegations against his wife, and that ‘illegal immigration’ in Spain had put women in danger.
‘Sánchez puts the middle class in danger with his socialist policies that bring only poverty and death,’ said the statement. The Spanish government had also ‘endangered the unity of its kingdom’ by making a deal with a [Catalan] separatist party to be able to stay in power, it added.
Then last Sunday, Milei went a step further - a step too far for Sánchez’s liking - when he turned up at the Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid to speak at Europa Viva 24, a far-right ‘festival’ organised by Spain’s Vox party, and where he insinuated that Begoña Gómez, the wife of the Spanish PM, was ‘corrupt’.
‘The global elites don’t realise how destructive it can be to implement the ideas of socialism,’ Milei said, looking like he was on something again. ‘They don’t know the type of society and country that can produce, the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that generates.’ He paused, ‘theatrically’, then added: ‘When you have a corrupt wife, let’s say, it gets dirty, and you take five days to think about it.’
He was, of course, referring to Sánchez recently taking a few days to consider resigning after Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary corruption investigation against his wife, which has since been quickly closed.
Foreign minister Albares denounced Milei’s ‘frontal attack’ on Spain’s democracy and demanded a full public apology, saying that the country would take measures to defend its ‘sovereignty and dignity’. But Milei doubled down on Monday, declaring that he had no intention of retracting his comments and that he was himself ‘the victim’ - presumably for Puente’s ‘substances’ comments.
So … Spain recalled its ambassador from Argentina. In response, the Argentine government has slammed what it calls Spain’s ‘flashy and impulsive threats’ and continues to insist that Sánchez’s government should apologise.
Spain’s opposition groups have taken advantage of the diplomatic row to also lay into the government, criticising them for not recalling the Spanish ambassador in Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, yet doing so in Buenos Aires just because Sánchez feels insulted by the words of Milei spoken at a rally. They probably have a point there, to be honest.
Whilst the Spain-Argentina spat looks quite childish, Sánchez now also has left-wing politicians from his own coalition partner, Sumar, demanding more concrete measures against Israel in order to end the war in Gaza, including the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador to Tel Aviv. But Israel has already jumped the gun on that, recalling their own ambassador from Spain - as well as from Ireland and Norway - after the three countries announced they would recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel has since said that it will even block the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
‘We're talking about occupied territories recognised by the United Nations,’ Spain’s foreign minister Albares has said in response. ‘We are analysing with Norway and Ireland what actions we can take.’
Meanwhile, back in Buenos Aires, the allegedly substance-consuming Milei presented his new book midweek before an ecstatic crowd at some stadium, then performed a rock song on stage with everyone chanting: ‘Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, your wife is corrupt and so are you.’
The world’s going mad, at least the political world. With Rishi Sunak announcing a general election in torrential rain this week to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ blaring in the background - a song that’s synonymous with the Labour Party’s 1997 election landslide - here in Spain, the diplomatic bust-ups are just going to get worse and worse, especially in the build-up to the EU elections … and possibly beyond.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming Events
On Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshopat C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course.
The Barcelona Connection - Research
In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews
A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews
Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid
The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish edition
A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact Details
You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk