Spokespeople tend to be boring characters, who only “dampen” the relationship between the press and politicians with formal statements. In Argentina, it is different: libertarian president Javier Milei put someone in office as used to strong phrases as he is.
Manuel Adorni, an economic analyst and consultant and university professor who has worked for several websites, newspapers and local TV and radio stations, has stood out for his blunt statements in the traditional press conference he gives daily to the Argentine press.
This month, during the public debate over the sending of a Venezuelan plane to the United States that had been detained in Argentina since June 2022, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, called Adorni a “dude”.
The spokesperson responded in kind. “Regarding what he said about me, I don’t have many comments to make because everything that comes from a government of dictators must be minimized in terms of how they can characterize us,” declared Adorni. “What can you expect from a donkey other than a kick?”, he quipped.
At the end of February, the spokesperson also drew attention when he refuted a statement by Pope Francis, who had stated that the State has a “more important role than ever” in guaranteeing social justice in a message sent to Argentine judges.
“In some [frases do papa] We don't agree and it's a good thing that's the case. In any case, the pope is a spiritual leader and we govern Argentina, with problems on all sides,” said Adorni.
The spokesperson recalled Milei's position of questioning “the logic of taking from one to give to others at the discretion of the employee [eleito] of the moment” and that this concept generated “in Argentina and the rest of the world” a reality in which “50% [da população] is poor”.
“This means that the blessed current State took everything from many millions of Argentines and gave them absolutely nothing,” Adorni said.
Before his arrival as presidential spokesman, the 44-year-old economic analyst stood out precisely for his provocations against politicians and the left.
In 2023, upon winning the Martín Fierro Digital award for best Argentine twitterer, he said: “I want the criminals, the corrupt, the thieves, everything that is not good for Argentina, to stay on one side, and the good people , from the other”.
The previous year, when criticizing the loss of value of the peso against the dollar, he published on Twitter (which would later become X) the image of a US$100 bill and wrote: “Yes, that's 30 thousand. End”.
It was a reference to the value of the American banknote in pesos and the number of dead and missing in the last Argentine military dictatorship pointed out by the left.
Due to his positions on economics, he got closer to Milei, who he began to defend in his posts. In 2022, he even published a publication with the expression “Adorni-Milei 2023”, suggesting a partnership in the following year’s presidential election.
Afterwards, he signed the preface to a book by the current president, “The end of inflation”. “Argentina is that country where it is difficult for us to understand how some elementary issues have disappeared: freedoms, growth, wealth and even dignity,” he wrote.
In November last year, a few days after Milei's election, he praised the libertarian again. “President-elect Javier Milei seems to have done much more for the country's international relations in 48 hours than Alberto Fernández himself did in his four years in government. The end,” he stated.
The following day, his appointment as presidential spokesperson was confirmed. This Wednesday (27), the Argentine press highlighted a divergence between him and the president: Adorni stated that the contracts of 15 thousand public servants will not be renewed on March 31, while a day earlier, Milei had said that there would be 70 thousand .
However, there is nothing to indicate that the partnership is shaken – the spokesperson's bombastic daily press conferences should continue to drive Argentine political news.
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