Luis Ayllón
The words of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, in which he accused the Argentinian President, Javier Milei, of “ingesting substances”, have provoked a diplomatic conflict between Spain and Argentina, with a series of communiqués exchanged in the last few hours.
Following Puente’s accusations, alluding to the fact that Milei appeared on a television programme “I don’t know in what state and prior to the ingestion or after the ingestion of what substances”, the Argentine president published a statement from his office on his social network X, in which he “repudiates” these words, which he describes as “slander and insults”.
Afterwards, the Argentinian president’s office points out that “the government of Pedro Sánchez has more important problems to deal with, such as the accusations of corruption against his wife, a matter that has even led him to consider resigning”.
The statement adds that it hopes that justice will act “swiftly in the face of such a case of corruption”, which it considers affects Spain’s stability and relations with Argentina.
It also states that Pedro Sánchez has endangered the unity of Spain, “by making pacts with separatists and leading to the dissolution” of the country, and also Spanish women “by allowing – it says – illegal immigration by those who threaten their physical integrity”; and the middle class, due to “socialist policies that only bring poverty and death”.
Finally, he says: “Argentines chose to change the model that brought us misery and decadence. The same model that the PSOE applies in your country”.
The Argentinean communiqué was responded to yesterday by the Spanish government, through a note issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which states that it “categorically rejects the unfounded terms of this communiqué, and adds that they “do not correspond to the relations of two brotherly countries and peoples”.
“The Spanish government and people will continue to maintain and strengthen their fraternal ties and their relations of friendship and collaboration with the Argentine people, a desire shared by the whole of Spanish society,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.
Calls for his resignation
Argentine Interior Minister Guillermo Francos called for Puente’s dismissal. “I don’t want to get inside the Spanish government, but if I were the president, I would ask for his resignation,” he said in an interview with Argentine radio station Radio Mitre, in which he also spoke of the possibility of lodging a formal diplomatic protest, saying: “I think a protest is the least that can be done against this guy”.
Francos described Puente as “irresponsible”, and added: “He cannot expose the government of a country that is important for Argentina because of its traditions, its descendants, because of the help that Argentina has given; a lack of respect of such magnitude from a member of President Sánchez’s cabinet seems to me to be really unusual”.
The Interior Minister insisted: “Milei is the democratic president of Argentina, a country of immigrants from Spain, which gave shelter to Spaniards and gave shelter to Spain when it was bad. There are lots of Spanish companies that have invested here. How can it be that a person of this quality is part of a cabinet, makes such a statement and nothing happens?
In Spain, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo also called for the resignation or dismissal of Óscar Puente, saying: “Today Mr Puente should resign or be dismissed, but he is neither going to resign nor be dismissed, because Puente and Sánchez are enjoying the quagmire they are trying to get Spain into. During a rally in Badalona, he said: “They have just created a political crisis with a sister country such as the Republic of Argentina”.
Puente, for his part, on the social network X reproached Feijóo for supporting Milei rather than the Spanish government. “That between supporting his government or Milei he was going to choose Milei was unquoted. He is already asking for a place at the rally with Abascal on 18 May. It is already impossible to distinguish him from the extreme right,” he wrote.
Visit to Spain
The diplomatic conflict between Madrid and Buenos Aires over Puente’s words comes a fortnight before Milei is due to make his first visit to Spain as Argentine president. Specifically, he is scheduled to take part in the EuropaVIVA24 Festival, organised by Vox leader Santiago Abascal at the Vistalegre Palace in Madrid on 18 and 19 May.
Later, on 21 June, he will return to Spain to receive the 2024 Award from the Juan de Mariana Institute, together with other leading figures from different fields, such as the economist Jesús Huerta de Soto and the writer Mario Vargas Llosa.
Neither of the two announced visits is of an official nature and, at least until today, there were no plans to meet with the Spanish authorities, something that has been rumoured in diplomatic circles, because it is customary that, if an Ibero-American president comes to Spain, even if it is a private visit, there is at least a courtesy meeting with the King or the Prime Minister.
Last November, Sánchez avoided congratulating Milei on his election victory, unlike what he did with other Ibero-American presidents. In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government limited itself to wishing ‘success to Argentina in this new stage’ and added: ‘After yesterday’s presidential elections, in which the Argentinians voted democratically, Spain will continue to promote relations with Argentina in favour of the well-being and prosperity of our peoples, both bilaterally and in the Ibero-American and multilateral spheres’.
When Milei was sworn in as president on 10 December, Spain was represented by His Majesty the King, but he was not accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, but by the then State Secretary for Ibero-America, Juan Fernández Trigo.
On 18 February, Albares met with the Argentine Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, taking advantage of the fact that they coincided at the Munich Security Conference, and in mid-April, the Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister, Leopoldo Sahores, visited Spain, where he met with the current State Secretary for Ibero-America, Susana Sumelzo. In statements to Europa Press, Sahores said that relations between the two countries are progressing discreetly and are above “differences from an ideological point of view or political approaches”.
