The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, called today in a television interview “coward” the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, of whom he said that in the area of freedom of expression, he is applying the same model as (Nicolás) Maduro, president of Venezuela.
The coward (in reference to Pedro Sánchez) sent all his ministers to insult me. He ripped off with the Transport and then, as I didn’t answer him, he very cowardly sent the women to attack me, and then called me misogynist. And since I didn’t answer, he’s already joined,’ he said in an interview with the All News (TN) channel.
The Minister of Transport of Spain, “Scar Puente,” made a controversial statement on May 3 during an event of the PSOE, in which he accused the Argentine president, Javier Milei, of “ingerir substances.” This comment generated a strong reaction from the Argentine government, which issued a statement of repudiation, calling the statements of “slanderships and insults.”
Bridge later acknowledged that his words were a mistake and that he did not calibrate the impact they would have. He said that, if he had known, he would not have said them and described the context as “distended.”
“He is moving forward on freedom of expression, it is clear that it is Maduro’s model that he is applying,” Milei said today in reference to the head of the Spanish Executive. What if I did that here? “What would the whole band say?” he added.
The Argentine head of state published on social networks yesterday on social networks several messages in support of the press collaborator of the Spanish far-right political formation Se Ahabó la Fiesta (SALF) Vito Quiles, immersed in a controversy with the Spanish Minister “Scars Puente,” whom the communicator accuses of having used an official car to attend a concert by singer Taylor Swift.
The relationship between Milei and the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, as well as that of their respective cabinets, is going through a conflicting period, including the withdrawal by the Spanish authorities of their ambassador to Argentina, María Jesús Alonso.
The moment of greatest tension took place when Milei accused Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, of being a “corrupt,” and called the head of the Spanish government as a coward, during the participation of the President of Argentina in an event in Madrid of the far-right Vox party.
Next Thursday, Milei will leave again on a private trip to Spain to receive the following day an award from the Juan de Mariana Institute, a think tank founded in 2005 whose name pays tribute to Juan de Mariana, a Spanish theologian and economist from the 16th century known for his ideas on economics and individual freedom.
The spokeswoman for the Spanish government, Pilar Alegría, has warned Milei that if she plans to visit Spain this week and make statements she will have to respect the Spanish people and their institutions.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Prensa