Spanish minister and Argentinian president quarrel after drug charges | RTL News

It is the first riot between Milei and a European government. Since becoming president in December, the Argentine president has had heated disputes in South and Central America. Now also with Spain, although remarkably it was not Milei who started. That was Oscar Puente, the Spanish Minister of Transport, and the man who is seen as Prime Minister Sánchez’s greatest political confidant.

Substance use

During a meeting with members of the Social Democratic Party, Puente said he is certain that Argentina’s president is a “substance abuser.” Puente describes a situation that convinced him of this: “When he came out, he was in a state just after taking I don’t know what substances.”

It did not take long before a response came from the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. In an official announcement, Milei addresses Prime Minister Sánchez. Milei wonders why the false accusation about drug use was necessary. Because Sánchez, writes Milei, has ‘bigger problems to worry about, such as the accusation of corruption committed by his wife’.

A Spanish investigating judge started a corruption investigation against Sanchez’s wife Begoña Gomez a week and a half ago. Companies with which she had ties are said to have received government contracts and government support.

Danger for women and the middle class

Milei does not stop there in his response. He calls Prime Minister Sánchez a danger to women because he “allows illegal immigration of those who threaten their physical integrity.” He also thinks Sánchez is a danger to the Spanish middle class, because they would suffer from ‘socialist policies that only bring poverty and death’.

The response that followed from Madrid does not seem to calm things down. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs says he rejects everything Milei writes in his response. The minister says nothing about the accusation of drug use that started it all. He doesn’t apologize for it either.

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Spain is talking about the worst crisis between Spain and Argentina since 1863, when the two countries established friendly ties. That friendship also translates into financial interests. Spain is number 2 on the list of largest foreign investors in Argentina, after the United States. There are 136 large Spanish companies in the country, with branches, people and money. This argument is not good news for them. They were already unsure about what Milei’s policy will be towards foreign companies.

Visiting gives even more excitement

The question is how this dispute should be resolved. The right-wing Spanish opposition knows it. He believes that the man who started it should take responsibility. They demand the resignation of Minister Puente.

There is a good chance that this feud will continue. In two weeks, Javier Milei will come to Spain, but he will not meet Prime Minister Sánchez. That is very unusual for a foreign head of state visiting Spain. Milei will attend the kick-off of the campaign for the European elections of the radical right-wing party VOX. And that is precisely the party with which Prime Minister Sánchez always clashes the hardest.

Milei and Sánchez do not shy away from conflict

Although he has only been in power for five months, President Javier Milei has already faced some tough international confrontations. The most intense was with Colombia. This even led to Colombia expelling Argentine diplomats from the country. Milei also ended up in a diplomatic row with Mexico and relations between Argentina and China are at a low point.

Sánchez also has several diplomatic crises to his name. Last November, Israel expelled the Spanish ambassador from the country. Sánchez had spoken out unprecedentedly harshly in a TV interview. Sánchez lived at odds with Morocco for years. Statements about Western Sahara and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla went completely wrong with the government of Morocco.