No Diplomatic Conflict Between Argentina and Spain Following Minister’s Remarks about Milei
Spain’s Government Monday ruled out any diplomatic conflict with Argentina after Transport Minister Oscar Puente’s derogatory remarks last week against Javier Milei, whose spokesman Manuel Adorni said in Buenos Aires that “for us, it is a settled issue.”
“For a minister of another country to imply that a president ingests certain substances is not only unhappy but also quite aggressive. Based on that, the government expressed itself through the communiqué. The issue is over for us,” Adorni argued.
“We understand that it should not escalate beyond what already happened, which was simply an aggression and a response to that barbarity that was said about the President,” he added.
In Madrid, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares concurred: “There is no diplomatic crisis,” he stressed. In addition, Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Minister Elma Saiz sent “a fraternal message to the brotherly people” of Argentina and insisted both governments had already worked out their differences.
However, Argentina’s Interior Minister Guillermo Francos pointed out that “it seems to me that after such an offense from your government to the president of the Republic of Argentina there is no chance except for an apology.”
Asked about why the Argentine government chose to release a statement on social media instead of contacting the Spanish Embassy, Adorni replied that “it is absolutely incredible that in the face of an aggression against a President of the Nation they pretend to follow certain diplomatic steps.”
After Puente’s remarks, the Office of the Argentine President published a communiqué saying that the Spanish Government had more important things to worry about, such as the alleged involvement of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife in a case of corruption that nearly led to his resignation.
In this scenario, Adorni confirmed that Milei indeed plans to travel to Spain later this month but a meeting with Sánchez was not scheduled, although the South American leader’s agenda “is not closed.” Milei is to attend the conservative party Vox’s annual convention on May 18 and 19 in Madrid and meet with party leader Santiago Abascal among other right-wing politicians. Abascal attended Milei’s inauguration on Dec. 2023. Milei is also to receive the Juan de Mariana Institute award, alongside Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and other personalities.
“There are very bad people who, being themselves, have reached the top,” said Puente at an event organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). “Milei, for example, Trump…. I don’t know if they will have advisors. Milei, of course, if he has advisors, I don’t think he listens much,” he went on. “I have seen Milei on TV and as I was listening to him -I do not know in what state and prior to the ingestion or after the ingestion of what substances- I said: ‘It is impossible for him to win the elections,” the Spanish official said in the city of Salamanca.”
“Pedro Sánchez has endangered the unity of the Kingdom, making pacts with separatists and leading to the dissolution of Spain; he has endangered Spanish women by allowing the illegal immigration of those who threaten their physical integrity; and he has endangered the middle class with his socialist policies that only bring poverty and death,” the document also noted.
“Argentines chose to change the model that brought us misery and decadence, the same model applied by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in their country,” Milei’s Office insisted.
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