Diplomacy thrown to the dogs by King and President
The Spanish King successfully calmed down the Venezuelan President. The royal father simply told him to ‘shut up’ at a regional conference in South America:
[Spain's King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to "shut up" as the Ibero-American summit drew to a close in Santiago, Chile.
The outburst came after Mr Chavez called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist".
Mr Chavez then interrupted Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's calls for him to be more diplomatic, prompting the king's outburst.
Latin American, Portuguese, Spanish and Andorran leaders were meeting in Chile.
'Democratically elected'
Mr Chavez called Mr Aznar, a close ally of US President George W Bush, a fascist, adding "fascists are not human. A snake is more human."
Mr Zapatero said: "[Former Prime Minister] Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people.”
Mr Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, despite his microphone being turned off. The king leaned forward and said: “Why don’t you shut up?”
According to reports, the king used a familiar term normally used only for close acquaintances – or children….]
And he did keep quiet, too. That was what President bush, arguably the most powerful head of state currently, could not do in almost a decade in office!
Chavez had had the audacity to accuse a former Spanish head of government of being a ‘fascist’, without giving proper right of reply to the incumbent Spanish Prime Minister.
Even though the Spanish PM’s rebuttal – he based it on the fact that his predecessor had been elected into office and so could not be called that – was quite flawed, that was no reason to interrupt him rudely.
The rebuttal was flawed, in my humble opinion, because Hitler himself had been elected into office by a landslide, too, but he became a monster fascist.
Of course, Chavez asked the king afterwards for a public apology. Well, good luck, Sir, while you wait a long time for it to come…. Meanwhile, I have another item to post…
