Argentina and Spain are going through the worst diplomatic crisis in their recent history with no short-term solution in sight on the horizon. “It can last a lifetime because Pedro Sánchez’s ideas will probably never be compatible with Javier Milei’s ideas,” he said. this Tuesday the presidential spokesperson of Argentina, Manuel Adorni. From Buenos Aires they reject that it is a diplomatic conflict and consider it “a strictly personal issue”, framed in “a discussion of conflicting ideas.” For this reason, the Spanish ambassador in the Argentine capital, María Jesús Alonso Jiménez, harshly criticizes the final withdrawal. “It is nonsense typical of an arrogant socialist,” Milei responded when asked about the decision of the President of the Spanish Executive. The confrontation has helped the Argentine president to cover up his internal fronts, starting with the Government’s difficulties in approving its law to scrap the State within the established deadlines.
Milei goes on the attack to defend herself from the criticism she has received since she called Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, “corrupt” at a Vox event in Madrid on Sunday. Her statements were repudiated by the socialist government, by the Spanish businessmen with whom she had met the day before, and also by the Argentine opposition. Milei turns a deaf ear. Where many see a diplomatic clash that puts the relationship between two countries at risk, he sees a personal problem. “[Sánchez] He is so fatally arrogant that, regarding a personal problem, in a phrase that had no names, he felt alluded to. Then the problem belongs to Mr. Pedro Sánchez, and from there he makes an absolutely meaningless diplomatic escalation,” he added. “Does he think he is the State? That is totalitarian, it is socialist,” Milei continued.
The Argentine Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, has maintained the same line as her political boss. “It’s an anecdote,” she responded when asked about the conflict with the Spanish authorities. Buenos Aires refuses to call its ambassador in Madrid, Roberto Bosch, for consultations, or respond with any similar action. She hopes that Spain reconsiders and backs down.
The tension, however, does not subside and is fed daily with new verbal darts from Milei. She refuses to apologize, as Sánchez demands, because she considers herself the victim and not the aggressor: “I am not going to apologize from any point of view. How am I going to apologize if I was the one attacked?” The ultra president says that Sánchez “has an inferiority complex” in front of him and considers him a coward: “He is so cowardly that he needed to send me to beat me for women,” he stated in reference to the criticism launched by some ministers of the Spanish Government against the statements of the Argentine leader last weekend. Late on Tuesday, at the closing of a business meeting, Milei again addressed Sánchez: “I have it in mind. match point to Pedrito, despite what the progressive media says.”
Recession and social protests
According to Milei, Sánchez’s reaction is part of a political strategy to divert attention: “He has problems in Spain and needs to polarize.” Argentine opposition leaders believe that Milei does the same thing that he criticizes: he uses the fight with Spain to cover up the great economic recession that Argentina is going through – with a year-on-year drop of 3.2% – and the increase in poverty and unemployment registered at the beginning. of his mandate.
The confrontation has made an unprecedented police protest in northeastern Argentina go almost unnoticed. The uniformed men camped last week in the middle of a central avenue in Posadas, in the province of Misiones, to demand salary improvements. The attempts to reach an agreement have failed and the protest continues to grow: street closures have multiplied and in addition to police, public employees, teachers, agricultural producers and prison workers have joined them.
Unlike his predecessors, Milei traveled to Spain as president without greeting Sánchez or King Felipe VI, with whom he had had a cordial meeting in Buenos Aires in December, when he attended his inauguration ceremony. The initial objective of the trip was to support the launch of the Vox campaign for the European elections, although at the last minute a meeting with Spanish businessmen was set up.
Analyst Carlos Pagni maintains that Milei’s actions are more similar to those of the head of a faction, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), than to those of a president. “He conducts himself as part of an international of factions to support a party and a leader, Santiago Abascal, who, according to what he says, recognized him when no one else did. Something very constant in Milei’s thinking: thanking those who highlighted or distinguished him when others did him bullying”, Pagni wrote in the diary The nation. The rise of Milei, a 53-year-old economist, was dazzling. He jumped from television sets to politics in 2021 and won a deputy seat for a new party. Just two years later, Argentines elected him president in the second round with 56% of the votes.
A frustrated May Pact
The fight with Sánchez has given breath to the Argentine Government, besieged by new obstacles to approve the law on scrapping the State that he presented at the beginning of his mandate. Milei will not be able to celebrate that legislative victory with a great May Pact this Saturday, as had been proposed. After obtaining the support of the Chamber of Deputies, the initiative has run aground in the Senate. The ruling party has only seven of the 72 seats and faces a divided opposition. The hardest wing, Kirchnerism, seeks votes to reject the law; The dialogueists, on the other hand, pressure the Government to grant some modifications.
Milei leaves the political negotiations in the hands of his ministers and is convinced that in the end they will achieve it. “We are not going to give up on making Argentina the freest country in the world,” Milei reiterated. He will sell that hope this Wednesday in the most emblematic stadium in Buenos Aires, Luna Park. There he will present his latest book in front of 5,000 people, and at the end, he will begin a Show musical that will have him as singer and protagonist. “He doesn’t celebrate anything at all. He is at an event that he himself finances,” argued Adorni when asked about the event. The world looks in disbelief at this president with a thousand faces.
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