President Javier Milei accused the Argentine opposition of trying desperately to stop economic progress after being attacked with stones During a campaign event in the accusation of bribes within its cabinet.
“This week’s operation is nothing more than another item in the long list of gadgets of the caste and, such as all the previous ones, a new lie,” Milei said Thursday during a business lunch in Buenos Aires.
“It was very moving yesterday to face all the rain of stones” Together with José Luis Espert and his sister, Karina, the president added later in his speech. “It was an incredible show. Despair was seen.”
Last week, local media published filtered recordings of Diego Spagnuolo, former director of the National Disability and Legal Advisor of Milei for years, in which he allegedly described bribes for between US $ 500,000 and US $ 800,000 per month in state purchases of medicines. In the recordings, which have not been verified, Spagnuolo points to Karina – general secretary of Milei – and its main collaborator, Eduardo “Lule” Menem, as the beneficiaries.
The president dismissed Spagnuolo the day after the messages were made public. Menem has denied any irregularity.
Milei faces a key electoral challenge on September 7 in the province of Buenos Aires, bastion of the Peronist opposition led by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Investors closely follow that election as a barometer of what is to come on October 26, when the Argentines will renew a large part of the Congress. The libertarian leader hopes to obtain enough seats to consolidate his promoted reforms.
However, The sudden irruption of a corruption scandal a few weeks after the elections has weakened part of its impulsesince he came to power in 2023 with the promise of ending the “decay” he has marked for decades to the Argentine political class.
“All he says is a lie,” Milei told reporters when asked about Spagnuolo during a campaign visit to Lomas de Zamora, a suburban neighborhood south of the capital, Wednesday. Minutes later, stones were launched against the president and his sister, which ended up abruptly to the visit.
A survey conducted this week by the consulting firm Management & Fit, based in Buenos Aires, revealed that Most voters considered the accusations of corruption seriousbut more than 80% of respondents had planned to keep their vote.
On Wednesday, the newspaper La Nación reported that Spagnuolo had erased all the messages with the Milei brothers before his phone was confiscated by Federal Justice last week. For his part, the chief of Cabinet, Guillermo Francos, dismissed the scandal as a “political operation” and a “defamation without evidence” during his monthly report before the lower house of the Congress.
Milei promised in his speech to move forward with his agenda after which he expects that they will be successful intermediate elections for his government. According to him, a second wave of reforms will follow that will begin with tax cuts, will continue with a review of labor legislation and conclude with the elimination of more economic restrictions.
