The president of Mexico, , is already in . The president landed this Friday night at Barcelona’s El Prat airport to participate in the IV summit for the defense of democracy. This is Sheinbaum’s first trip to Europe since he came to power in October 2024 and the first visit by a Mexican head of state to Spanish territory in eight years, after the official tour that Enrique Peña Nieto held in 2018. The meeting scheduled for this Saturday with , will be the first high-level meeting between representatives of both countries since then.
“May peace always live,” Sheinbaum told the journalists who came to cover his arrival. The president has been received by members of the Mexican community shouting “President, president!”, after traveling from Mexico City to Madrid, where she took another plane to get to Barcelona. The arrival in Spanish territory has been a small mass bath. The president greeted and hugged her followers, gave out autographs, danced to the rhythm of traditional music and left without giving any further statements to the media.
He has measured to the millimeter the messages he has given regarding his tour in Spain, the seventh country he has visited so far in his mandate, and the information he has shared about his activities in Europe. “From Mexico to Barcelona, as José Martí would say, love is paid with love. The heart of Mexico beats strong in every corner,” he later published on his social networks. Before, she uploaded a photo from a plane, in which she was seen reviewing documents and making notes on sheets of paper.
Sheinbaum plans to participate in the official summit, called by Sánchez and the president of Brazil, around ten in the morning this Saturday (eight hours less in central Mexico). The main themes will be the defense of international institutions and multilateralism; the fight against misinformation and the regulation of social networks, and the fight against inequality and discrimination. Among the guests are also the Colombian leader, Gustavo Petro, and the Uruguayan Yamandú Orsi. The president announced this week that she plans to hold bilateral meetings with all of them.
Saturday’s summit will likely be short, lasting approximately a couple of hours, according to the information shared by the Government of Spain. Sánchez and Lula have another summit on the agenda in the afternoon, the , a forum that is also held in Barcelona with a less formal nature, in which left-wing politicians from Europe and America, but also non-governmental organizations, activists and academics participate. Sheinbaum does not plan to participate in that event, according to the itinerary he announced in his morning conference this week before leaving the country.
All in all, Sheinbaum’s visit has provoked high political expectations on the other side of the Atlantic and represents the greatest rapprochement between both countries since the diplomatic crisis following the apology that his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sent in 2019 to the Spanish Monarchy for the abuses committed during the conquest. The leaders of Mexico and Spain are not expected to offer a joint appearance before the media, according to the information shared by both Governments. It is also unclear whether they will make at least part of the bilateral meeting public.
The president’s agenda also includes meetings with members of the Mexican community in Spain and a visit on Sunday to the new Mexican Supercomputing Center in Barcelona, an initiative to process large volumes of data on meteorological information, agriculture, customs and artificial intelligence applied to public policies. Sheinbaum will leave back that same Sunday and will arrive from Mexico at night. He will be in Spain for less than 48 hours, with the aim of regaining prominence for the Mexican Government on the international stage, sealing its alliances with the progressive governments of the region, proposing political alternatives in the midst of the onslaught of and moving forward in a slow thaw process with the Spanish authorities.
