Diplomatic relations between Spain and Argentina are experiencing one of their most tense moments in recent years after a Spanish minister suggested that the Argentine president, Javier Milei, had consumed drugs..
The statements had an immediate response from the Argentine presidency, which escalated the dispute by directly attacking the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, whom it pointed out for having “endangered” the unity of the country.
The brawl began last Friday at a round table organized by the Socialist Party (PSOE) in Salamanca, in which the Spanish Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, said that Milei had ingested “substances” during his electoral campaign last year.
Referring to the appearance of the then Argentine candidate on television during his election campaign last year, Puente assured that he did not know what state Milei was in, whether “before ingesting or after ingesting I don’t know what substances.”
Likewise, speaking about “authenticity” and encouraging his audience to “be themselves without fear,” the minister said that “there are very bad people who, by being themselves, have reached the top. Milei, for example. Trump,” he told attendees.
“I don’t know if they will have advisors. To Milei, of course, if she has advisors, I think she doesn’t listen much,” concluded Óscar Puente.
The Argentine president’s response was immediate and, in an official statement published on social media by the Office of the President, Milei condemned the “slander and insults” formulated by Puente, and attacked the policies of Sánchez’s socialist government.
In addition, the Argentine Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, called for Puente’s dismissal: “if I were president, I would ask him to resign,” he said in an interview on the Argentine Radio Miter.
Óscar Puente, who was mayor of Valladolid before assuming the Transport portfolio in November 2023, is one of the ministers of the government led by Pedro Sánchez who has been the protagonist of the most controversies, in part due to his direct and, according to his critics, reckless language. , which he does not hesitate to use on social networks and public speeches.
The clash comes after a cooling of relations between the two countries since the election of the Argentine far-right leader.
Crossing of communications
In its response, Milei’s office said Spain has more important things to address, such as corruption allegations against Sánchez’s wife, which the Madrid prosecutor has said should be shelved for lack of evidence.
The statement goes on to say that the president of the government’s socialist policies have brought “death and poverty” to Spaniards, “put Spanish women at risk by allowing the illegal immigration of those who threaten their physical integrity” and undermined the integrity of Spain by make deals with the separatists, in reference to the coalition government with the largest pro-independence party in Catalonia.
For its part, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement in which it “flatly rejects the unfounded terms” that “do not correspond to the relations of two brother countries and peoples.”
Milei, who assumed the Argentine presidency on December 10, has publicly supported the Spanish far-right anti-immigration party Vox.
The Argentine president is scheduled to visit Spain to attend the launch of Vox’s European electoral campaign on May 18. It is not the first time that the leader of La Libertad Avanza participates in a rally of the party led by Santiago Abascal.
In 2022, for example, Milei gave a speech in support of Vox in which he praised the values that unite both parties, and repeated the ideology with which he was later elected in Argentina, such as that “social justice is a violent and egregious idea.” unjust” or that “socialism is the impoverishment machine.”
This time, however, Milei will travel to Spain as president, but he does not plan to meet with either Pedro Sánchez or King Felipe VI.
This is not, however, the Argentine president’s first dispute with other world leaders.
In his long history of feuds, Milei described Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as a “raging communist” and “corrupt,” and called Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “ignorant.”
He also called the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, a “terrorist murderer,” referring to the fact that he was a member of a guerrilla group in the past. In response, Colombia expelled several Argentine diplomats, although the waters calmed down after a communication with the Argentine Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino.
Of Pope Francis, Milei said during the campaign that he was “the representative of the Evil One on Earth,” although he later retracted his statements upon assuming the presidency.
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