The impact of the statements of the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has its echo beyond the political world. This Monday, the president of the Confederation of Business Organizations, CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, rejected “outright” the statements in which he accused the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and his wife, Begoña Gómez, of corruption.
“We deeply reject out-of-tone statements, not in a diplomatic message, which is what must be had between two friendly countries, against the president of the Government and against the president’s wife. It is not the place or the place, it is not what is asked of two sister countries,” Garamendi said in statements to the SER network.
Government sources have explained to La Vanguardia that this positioning, which has been supported by the large companies that accompanied Garamendi at the Argentine embassy on Saturday, has not been spontaneous. “Last Sunday, Moncloa contacted the group of businessmen present at Saturday’s meeting with Javier Milei so that they would take a position against the president’s speech,” they point out.
There were also contacts between the Government and the CEOE, which was present at the meeting with Milei with two representatives: Antonio Garamendi, president; and Íñigo Fernández de Mesa, president of the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE) and vice president of the employers’ association.
After these conversations, Garamendi explained that it is common for Spanish businessmen to respond to the invitations of the leaders of countries in which there are economic interests and that in Argentina these interests are “very great.” Spanish companies have accumulated an investment of 18,000 million euros, making them the main European investor and the second largest in the world.
The president of the businessmen assures that on Saturday “they talked about nothing other than the economy.” The main companies that attended the meeting with Milei and his economic team have expressed themselves along the same lines. As the representative of the Spanish companies has stated, “we deeply reject the statements,” they indicate from BBVA, which was represented by the global person responsible for country monitoring, Jorge Sáenz-Azcúnaga.
From Banco Santander, which sent its global CEO, Héctor Grisi, they ratify the rejection and assure that at the meeting “they talked exclusively about economics and business projects. While the Argentine president asked what could be done to improve the situation, the companies raised their problems.”
Telefónica, which was represented by the CEO of Telefónica Hispam, Alfonso Gómez, has shown its “total alignment” with the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi. From the ‘teleco’ they point out in a statement issued today Monday that Javier Milei’s statements “do not correspond to those of two friendly and brother countries, nor do they occur in the right place or place.” Regarding the meeting last Saturday, they assure that the businessmen “had the opportunity to listen to and share with President Milei the action plans that are being carried out in that country and the current situation of investments in that country within a framework of work absolutely of a technical and economic nature” and claim that “this atmosphere of collaboration and constructive dialogue, and not the opposite, must be the necessary element for the joint progress of both countries.”
Along the same lines, from Iberia they assure that its president, Marco Sansavini, went to the embassy on Saturday, because there the economic plans of the Argentine government were explained and they remember that “Iberia has an important operation in that country that generates 197 million euros to the GDP of both countries and 12,500 direct and indirect jobs.”
“This type of language and insults do not contribute to the coexistence of our societies and in no case should they be part of the political dialectic between two sister countries, with a long history of collaboration and defense of Democracy,” adds Abertis in a note from press in which he reiterates the condemnations of his colleagues. On Saturday, José Aljaro, CEO of Abertis and Econener, represented the construction company last weekend.
In addition, on Saturday the general director of Naturgy Networks, Pedro Larrea, was at the embassy, ??who has also expressly condemned Milei’s accusations against Sánchez and his wife, the first vice president of Mapfre, Luis de Valdivia, whose company has joined to the sentences this morning, and representatives of Dia, AB Living, Pypsa, Rothschild and Co and Unir, as well as Alonso Aznar, son of the former President of the Government José María Aznar, as a representative of the investment firm Consello Group.
