Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will not attend Tuesday evening’s reception hosted by President Donald Trump in New York coinciding with the U.N. General Assembly, multiple Spanish outlets reported.
The United Nations is holding the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly this week, with high-level debates running to Monday, September 28. President Trump will deliver his speech on Tuesday morning, right after socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva of Brazil.
As part of President Trump’s U.N. agenda, he and First Lady Melania Trump will be hosting a reception for the heads of state gathered in New York on Tuesday evening.
El Mundo reports that Sánchez received an invitation for the event last week — however, sources from the La Moncloa Palace affirmed to the newspaper that the Spanish Prime Minister will not be attending citing alleged “agenda problems.”
Although the sources reportedly cited an agenda conflict as the reason for Sánchez’s absence at the reception, El Mundo, and other Spanish outlets such as La Vanguardia and even the public broadcaster RTVE pointed out that there is no item booked in Sánchez’s agenda that coincides with Trump’s reception. Per El Mundo, Sánchez’s last item in his Tuesday agenda is a meeting with promoters of the U.N.’s ” Sustainable Development Goals” which will take place hours before the reception.
El Mundo further detailed that Prime Minister Sanchez is scheduled meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani later this week. Per the newspaper, Sánchez will participate at a Wednesday breakfast event hosted by the New York City Mayor’s office and the Global Progress Foundation.
Mamdani also met with Brazil’s socialist President Lula on Monday.
Spanish outlets pointed out that, in contrast, King Felipe VI, who led Spain’s delegation to the U.N. General Assembly in 2025, did attend the reception hosted by Trump and First Lady Melania that year. While Sánchez also skipped the 2024 reception hosted by then-President Joe Biden, his U.N. speech occurred right as the reception took place.
President Trump has been highly critical of Sánchez over Spain’s refusal to step up and commit to NATO’s five percent GDP spending on defense and Spain’s refusal to assist the United States in the ongoing conflict with Iran.
Additionally, Trump has slammed Sánchez over his administration’s disastrous handling of the ongoing migrant invasion in Ceuta. Sánchez and Trump last briefly met in late July during the 2026 FIFA World Cup final match between Spain and Argentina.