Even before his landing in Spain, before Javier Milei opened his mouth, the Argentine president’s trip was already involved in controversy in his country. Since taking office five months and 10 days ago, Milei has made six trips abroad and in most of them he has not developed a State agenda or held meetings with authorities of the nations visited, but rather has participated in less important activities. linked to national interests rather than to their own particular ones. Opposition leaders question that, while within the country he proclaims that “there is no money” and implements a plan for severe adjustment of public spending, with the chainsaw as an emblem, Milei and his entourage use the presidential plane and spend from the coffers. to publicize the figure of the far-right leader throughout the world.
Milei’s visit to Madrid last weekend had been confirmed by the Argentine president on March 29, when he announced on his social networks that he would participate in the Vox summit with his “dear friend” Santiago Abascal, leader of the ultra party. Spanish. After the first questions about the private nature of the trip, the Government responded that Milei would have an official agenda and that she would meet with businessmen in Spain. Only 45 days after the trip was announced, last week, the meeting and who would participate could be confirmed.
In the president’s first three trips abroad, the Argentine government reported having spent a total of 168 million pesos (about $168,000, at the current exchange rate). There is still no official data on the last three. In this context, the opposition of Hacemos Coalión Federal requested information from the Government to detail the reasons for Milei’s trips “in use of his investiture” to the United States, Switzerland, Israel, Italy and Spain. They asked for an account of itineraries, activities, costs and origin of the funds used. “We want to know if they were state visits or with a private agenda. From the spread on social networks and the spokesperson’s statements, it seems that in general they are trips of a private nature,” said deputy Óscar Agost Carreño, one of the signatories of the request for information. For his part, Left Front deputy Gabriel Solano denounced Milei to court “for using public funds and property, including the presidential plane, to travel to Spain in order to participate in Vox party activities. The cost to the State will exceed $500,000.”
In his five months and 10 days as president, Milei has made five visits to different parts of Argentina, in addition to the trips made abroad. In January he went to Switzerland to participate in the Davos Forum. In February he traveled to Israel, Italy and the Vatican, where he did maintain state activities. At the end of the same month, Milei made his first visit to the United States: he met with another icon of the global right, former President Donald Trump, and later spoke at the Conservative Action Policy Conference (CPAC). He traveled to the United States again in April, to be honored as an “international ambassador of light” by the Jewish organization Chabad Lubavitch and, later, to meet with the owner of Tesla, Elon Musk. He would meet the millionaire of South African origin again at the beginning of May, on his third visit to the United States. On that occasion, he also spoke to businessmen, bankers and investment fund representatives at the Milken Institute Forum.
Criticism for the waste of public funds hits a sensitive spot for the Government of La Libertad Avanza. Milei built a large part of his electoral victory on the basis of attacking the privileges of the “political caste” and is now accused of engaging in the same behaviors that he previously reviled. “They are not private trips,” defended the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni. “We do not make any self-criticism in terms of expenses because I can assure you that, if there is an austere government that spends the minimum and essential, it is this one,” he insisted last week.
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