Milei redoubles the insults in opposition to Sánchez and juggles to justify his journey to Spain | EUROtoday

If anybody believed that there was a truce of their confrontation with the Government of Spain, the Argentine president, Javier Milei, took care to disclaim it. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez is “an incompetent, a liar and a coward,” Milei stated in a tv interview Thursday night time, in addition to “Europe's laughingstock in diplomatic matters.” Regarding the letter from the Argentine Embassy in Madrid that said that his go to final week to Spain was of a “private” nature, which fuels the questions in opposition to him for using state funds to finance journeys with out public curiosity, Milei justified himself. : “What I try to do is fit in activities, to save resources,” he argued, alluding to his participation within the summit of the extremely Vox social gathering and the assembly he held with Spanish businessmen.

The far-right president's statements on Thursday night time deepened the confrontation that started final weekend, when Milei known as the president of the Spanish Government “sleazy” and his spouse, Begoña Gómez, “corrupt.” Spain demanded an apology that by no means got here and an unprecedented diplomatic disaster opened, which has left the European nation with the Buenos Aires embassy beheaded.

The new chapter of the controversy occurred in an interview that Milei gave to the conservative tv channel The Nation+. Asked about Pedro Sánchez, Milei known as him “an incompetent, a liar, a coward who sent his ministers to attack me, he did not even have the courage to do so.” He additionally stated that he “interfered in Argentine politics by playing a role in the electoral campaign,” in reference to the Spaniard's help for Sergio Massa, the Peronist candidate defeated in final yr's elections.

Then the Argentine president added: “Sánchez cowardly sent women to attack me, to frame it in an issue of misogyny and since it didn't work, he and (José Luis Rodríguez) Zapatero directly attacked me. He attacked me in every way possible, and when I responded in the abstract, he felt addressed and used the State apparatus to respond to me, to the detriment of a beautiful relationship between the people of Spain and Argentina. For Milei, the Spanish president “today is the laughing stock of Europe in diplomatic matters.”

The letter

The Argentine opposition attacked Milei's Government this Thursday for paying with public cash for his non-public go to to Spain. References from totally different opposition events demanded {that a} judicial investigation be opened for alleged fraud in opposition to the State following the dissemination of a letter from the Argentine Embassy in Madrid addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain by which it reported the non-public nature of the journey. The native media echoed the publication of that letter by EL PAÍS and reopened the controversy on the controversial bills of the extremely Executive.

The presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, juggled to justify each the diplomatic workplace in Madrid and the Executive. “It is absolutely correct that the embassy has defined it as a private visit because there are no official audiences but rather a meeting with businessmen, academics or relevant cultural people. Just as it is absolutely correct that I or anyone in the Government said that the visit was not private. “We do not use the same terminology that the Foreign Ministry uses because otherwise we would understand each other, because if I say private visit you understand that it is strictly personal in nature and that it should be addressed with the president's assets,” Adorni responded at a press conference.

The spokesperson's statement corrects the first official response received by this newspaper. As soon as the letter became known, sources close to Milei described the fact that it reported a “private visit” by Milei and not an official one, as the Government maintains to avoid the controversy over the high expenses for presidential trips abroad in the midst of a severe cut in public spending.

The president tried another justification. “You can make a head of state visit and not necessarily see another head of state. What I try to do is fit in activities, to save resources,” he justified. “When I have an activity, of course, originally it had a format, but later we made an agenda to solve problems in Argentina. And Spain is one of the countries with the most investments in Argentina, so I went and sat down to talk with Spanish businessmen. Part of my international agenda has to do with finding the best scenario to encourage investment in the country,” he stated. Thus, he made it clear that his journey was scheduled to take part within the launch of Vox's European election marketing campaign.

In passing, Milei attacked the opposition leaders who query him. “I understand that the majority of Argentine politicians are of a Lilliputian scale, that is, inconsequential, unknown and with zero international shine… That's not what happens to me, where I go is a sensation. In fact, I am, let's say, the most popular politician in the world,” he assured. “I understand that this fills them with envy, hatred, resentment and then they will want to get dirty with me. “They invite me to a lot of places, they give me a lot of prizes.” He stated that he takes benefit of those actions to develop “a marketing action for Argentina in the world.”

Opposition criticism

The official explanations haven’t been sufficient for the opposition, which has sued the Argentine president in courtroom. “We present a complaint against President Milei and Francisco Sanchez (Secretary of Worship) so that they can be investigated for embezzlement and defrauding the State,” reported this Friday the unconventional deputy Fernando Carbajal, signatory of the accusation alongside together with his friends Pedro Galimberti and Manuel Aguirre. .

“The president traveled to Spain for strictly private causes. He attended a partisan exercise and went to current a e book of his obvious authorship. The non-public nature of the journey outcomes from the character of each occasions, neither of which has any relationship with the administration of nationwide pursuits. But it’s also legally endorsed by the Argentine State itself, which, by its ambassador, formally knowledgeable the Kingdom of Spain, because it was not too long ago made public by publications within the newspaper El País de España,” the lawsuit says.

The fundamental Argentine media cited the diplomatic letter by which they warned of the “private” nature of Milei's go to to Madrid. The communication makes the Argentine Government uncomfortable as a result of debate generated round who ought to bear the bills of a visit targeted on selling the determine of the far-right chief. The Executive has not but made the price of the journey official, however in keeping with what the newspaper calculated The nationsimply using the presidential aircraft was round $200,000.

Milei got here to energy with the promise of lowering political bills and eliminating caste privileges, however the media questions whether or not he’s starting to resemble these he criticized throughout the election marketing campaign. “No, we are not Kirchnerists,” responded final week the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, when a journalist in contrast her approach of appearing with these of the earlier Government.

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