Five interviews on radio and television in 75 minutes. Another one a few hours later. The Foreign Minister had an overdose of public appearances on Monday to respond to Javier Milei’s attacks at the Vox rally on Sunday. His Ministry has never been a prodigy of transparency, but this time José Manuel Albares had to give his all. It was the moment when we had to stand up to a fanatic who maintains that all left-wing parties are enemies of freedom and propagators of poverty. And also in the week in which the European electoral campaign begins. Milei fits like a glove into the strategy outlined by the PSOE.
On the other side of the ocean, Milei is delighted with the controversy created by his participation in the Vox rally. He understands his participation in politics as a permanent crusade against evil. He put it in those terms: “Power is a zero-sum game. If left-handers have it, we don’t have it.” We must not defeat them at the polls, but rather destroy them. All those who do not think like him are socialists who bring death and poverty. “Victory on the battlefield does not depend on the number of soldiers,” he said with a vision of war contradicted by history, “but on the forces that come from heaven.” This is how his speech ended. It is an old idea that was often heard in the Middle Ages.
Milei went further to make a personal attack against Pedro Sánchez. When referring to “the class of people screwed to power” created by socialism, he mentioned his wife, “even if he has a corrupt wife, he gets dirty and takes five days to think about it.”
Later, his spokesman, Manuel Adorni, denied the phrase, although it was quite clear: “The president is not going to apologize because he doesn’t have to. “He made no mention of Begoña.” By then, Albares had already announced the temporary withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires and demanded an apology that he will not receive.
The Spanish minister stated that there is no precedent for this type of offense in relations with Argentina. Yes there are with Venezuela, with Hugo Chávez’s attacks on José María Aznar, which Zapatero rejected, and Nicolás Maduro’s insults to Mariano Rajoy (“racist, corrupt garbage and colonialist garbage”) on several occasions -2016, 2017 and 2018 –, one of them for a non-law proposal approved in Congress with the votes of the PP and the PSOE.
Upon his return to Argentina, the president had informed his team that there would be no apology of any kind. To confirm this, he used his Twitter account and retweeted messages of support for him, as well as an image of a lion with the flag of his country and the words: “The lion is back, surfing on a wave of socialist tears.” He is a born provocateur always ready to please the clack of him on social networks.
On previous occasions, advisors and senior officials had privately communicated to the Argentine press that “this is what Javier is like,” according to the conservative newspaper La Nación. There was little they could do when he opened his mouth. Now not even that. They cannot present them as the usual rhetorical excesses, because they are part of a deliberate strategy.
The same newspaper shows the opinion of a source close to former conservative president Mauricio Macri, Milei’s only safe ally in Congress. Dynamiting relations with Spain is not part of the plans of the Argentine right, although their chances of taming the president are zero: “We have a negative opinion of Pedro Sánchez, but, in the case of the president of a friendly country like Spain, it was a serious mistake. He shouldn’t have done it. Argentina needs investments and support from international organizations. Any noise threatens that, especially for investors. “Conflicts between countries scare them as much as legal insecurity and mistrust.”
In a similar vein, Patricio Giusto, a professor of International Relations and a conservative tendency, wonders what the price will be for Argentina of “so much libertarian stupidity” in its foreign policy: “President Javier Milei has unleashed an absurd and unprecedented diplomatic conflict, neither more nor less than with the Kingdom of Spain. Throughout our existence as a nation, with few countries we have maintained ties as old, stable and friendly as with Spain,” he writes in the newspaper Clarín.
The Popular Party has decided to play all bands at the same time to see if any of them work. Her first reaction on Sunday afternoon was to partially agree with Milei by stating that “her (Sanchez’s) silence about the accusations against his wife generates internal doubts, but also distrust abroad.”
The next day, González Pons chose to criticize Milei and described his attacks as “interference in national politics.” The supposed moderation did not last long until Núñez Feijóo came out to say that there are no differences between Milei and Sánchez: “What Mr. Milei has done is just a sample of what the Government does every day against everyone who does not think the same that they”.
Feijóo does not dare to directly criticize Milei. His Argentine allies support him and he has also decided that she cannot side with the Government in any matter of national or international politics. Not when he aspires, at the moment with little foundation, to receive the support of Vox voters at the polls.
Those who risk money have more restricted options. Spanish businessmen with businesses in Argentina had a difficult time not attending the meeting that Milei called them to at the embassy, the appointment that served to hide a private trip designed to present his book and attend a Vox rally. Thus he pretended to turn it into an official visit and justified the use of the presidential plane and the stay in a luxury hotel paid for with public funds from a ruined State.
The CEOE and businessmen such as those responsible for Telefónica and Naturgy could not support Vox’s act and the personal accusations made by Milei either. “Out of tone statements. We reject them outright. It is not the place or the place,” said Antonio Garamendi.
The socialists have it clearer. In a way, the whole scandal is a gift for the campaign that begins on Thursday night. He uses the most mouthy and hysterical ultra leader in Latin America, and it is not that his number is scarce, as another argument to defend that Sánchez is an international figure in the fight against the extreme right. At Sumar they do not have an effective response against that idea. They cannot defend Milei or downplay her words. What they do need is to find two or three issues that distinguish them from Sánchez and be very aggressive with them. Surveys reveal that time is running out.
On Monday afternoon, Milei’s spokesperson gave his daily press conference in which he was only asked about the crisis with Spain. Manuel Adorni tried to reduce the tension by arguing that there is no diplomatic problem with Spain or fear of a stronger reaction from the Sánchez Government: “There is no reason for there to be one.” Not only are they not going to apologize, which was already known, but they are demanding an apology for previous attacks by Sánchez and his ministers on Milei. As examples, he cited Óscar Puente’s phrase about the substances that Milei consumes and other criticisms from Morant, Díaz and Sánchez himself.
The Spanish president insisted on Monday that if there is no apology, there will be “a response consistent with the dignity that Spanish democracy represents.” It is not known what it could be. Anyone that is especially aggressive will affect the interests of Spanish companies and the relations between both countries, which both sides want to protect.
What is guaranteed is that Sánchez and the socialists will talk a lot about the international threat of the extreme right in the campaign and that Javier Milei will occupy a prominent place in their speeches. The Argentine president will take care of using these criticisms in his favor.
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