The Diplomat
The Government yesterday gave Óscar Puente the opportunity to apologize for the words he said about the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, in which he accused him of “ingesting substances”, causing a diplomatic conflict, but the Minister of Transport did not take advantage of it. to apologize. The furthest Puente came was to say that “if he had known the impact of his words” he would not have said them.
Puente was one of the ministers chosen by the Government to speak after the press conference of the Council of Ministers, taking advantage of the modification of some navigation and air safety laws, knowing that he would be the target of journalists’ questions.
But Puente, far from rectifying his words, tried to justify them, remembering that he said them within the framework of an event at the University of Salamanca before an audience of 200 people, and ensuring that if he had had “the slightest notion” of the “dissemination and repercussion” that they were going to have, he would not have pronounced them.
The minister admitted that his “big mistake” was not having thought that what happened could happen, but he said that “there has been a lot of overreaction on this issue.”
Puente pointed out that “there has been tremendous concern about the relations between Spain and Argentina”, although he was sure that “beyond the vicissitudes that the relations between the two governments go through, which will sometimes be better, other times worse, they will continue to be good, positive, collaborative, cooperative relations” since both countries are interested.
Without wanting to comment on the response statement from the Argentine President’s Office, Puente recalled that the Government of Buenos Aires itself considered the incident over on Monday, and added: “The story is over now, the current political situation has enough incentives to Let’s all change gears and talk about other things.
However, the PP insisted yesterday on stating, through the spokesperson of the Popular Group in Congress, Miguel Tellado, that “in any democratic country” Puente would have been “immediately dismissed as minister.” He added that “unfortunately, Spain does not meet the democratic standards of neighboring countries and that is why Puente is Sánchez’s favorite minister.”
According to Tellado, Óscar Puente “is the professional defamer, he is dedicated to heating up the political scene, throwing smoke screens.” In addition, he regretted “that Minister Albares has not risen to the occasion either.”
