Former President Alberto Fernández met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday and one fact caught the eye: his partner Fabiola Yañez was not present.
The former president, who left the Casa Rosada on December 10 and currently lives in Madrid, went to Rome accompanied by his young son Francisco.
After the meeting, Fernandez took to social media to explain why he was not accompanied by Yañez, as planned and as had happened in the two previous visits to the pope.
"Unfortunately,a surgical intervention to heal appendicitis prevented Fabiola from joining us," Fernandez explained on his X account, where he thanked Francis "personally for everything he helped our beloved Argentina" in his four years in office and added: "I am sure he will continue to do so."
The former president stressed that "the Holy Father had the deference to bless Francis" and convey to him "his best wishes for a speedy recovery for Fabiola."
Fernandez stressed that "the Pope is undoubtedly the most important moral leader that humanity has. My eternal gratitude and my unwavering commitment to be helping him in his enormous struggle to build a more just and equal society."
The meeting between the two was scheduled to take place last November, on the occasion of the end of Fernández's term as president, but was postponed until the end of the transition process, after which the former president has moved to live in Spain, where he teaches.
The meeting comes just hours after Francis expressed last night his desire to travel to Argentina in the second half of this year, because he is concerned about the situation in his country because "people are suffering a lot there," he said.
"It does worry me because people are suffering a lot there, it's a difficult time for the country and the possibility of making a trip in the second half of the year is being planned," the pope said in a television interview.
Francis, whom Milei has already invited, explained that in August he has "to make a trip to Polynesia, far away, and after this it would be done to Argentina, if it can be done, but I would like to go. In ten years he will be fine," he said, as he has not returned to his country since his papal election in 2013.