The Ministry of Foreign Affairs “flatly rejected the unfounded terms of the statement issued by the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic” in its reply to Javier Milei, who in a note from the presidency issued in response to statements by the Minister of Transport Óscar Puente He directly attacked Pedro Sánchez.
The controversy also moved to Spanish politics, where the PP asked the President of the Government to dismiss Minister Óscar Puente for his words about the controversial leader.
In the text issued by the Argentine president’s office, Milei accused the Spanish president of “putting at risk” the unity of Spain “by agreeing with the separatists” while also censuring that the Spanish Government has endangered “the security of the Spanish women” by allowing “illegal immigration” and applying “socialist policies that only bring poverty and death.”
The text reminded Sánchez that he has “more important problems to deal with, such as the accusations of corruption leveled against his wife, an issue that even led him to consider his resignation.”
With this statement, Argentine diplomacy responded to the statements made on Friday by Minister Puente in a talk with students in Salamanca, in which he alluded to Milei’s possible “ingestion of substances” during his campaign for the presidency. “The Office of the President repudiates the slander and insults formulated by the Minister of Transport,” the statement began, before attacking the leader of the PSOE and telling him that “for the good of the Kingdom of Spain, we hope that justice will act quickly to “clarify such a corruption scandal that directly affects the stability of your Nation and, consequently, relations with our country.”
The Spanish Government “flatly” rejected the “unfounded terms” of the presidential office and in its response added that “they will continue to maintain and strengthen their relations of friendship and collaboration with the Argentine people.” Sánchez also did not want to add fuel to the matter and did not make any reference to the open crisis with the president of Argentina in his public interventions throughout yesterday.
But the diplomatic crisis impacted the electoral campaign. The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, called for the dismissal of the Minister of Transport. “Mr. Puente should resign or be fired, but he is neither going to resign nor be fired because Puente and Sánchez enjoy the quagmire in which they are trying to put Spain. They ask that they not be insulted and they insult everyone,” Feijóo attacked. “They boast of international relevance and have just created a political crisis with a sister country like Argentina,” added the leader of the popular parties.
It didn’t take long for responses from some members of the Government to arrive. Minister Puente replied to Feijóo through the social network And he added that the popular leader “asks to be given a place with Abascal” at the meeting organized by Vox on May 18, in which the president of Argentina will participate, and that “it is impossible to distinguish him from the extreme right.” For her part, the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, accused the popular leader of “taking the side of Milei” and his government “of recession and massive impoverishment.”