The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has once again lashed out in recent hours against the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, whom he defines as "thief," "liberty-killer," and "authoritarian" during an interview granted in Madrid, where he has traveled to attend a forum and hold meetings with local authorities.
After having called Sánchez "dictator" in his interventions on Wednesday —epithets that the Spanish Government denounced as "insults and slanders" and that, in its view, deserve the "strongest condemnation"—, Milei has reiterated his disqualifications in a conversation with the Uruguayan newspaper 'El Observador'.
"Sánchez is a thief, he has hundreds of corruption cases and is all day trying to interfere in Justice, precisely because of the problems he has, the problems he has with his wife," the Argentine leader has stated, raising the tone of his verbal offensive even further.
The Argentine leader has insisted that the president of the Government is "clearly a liberty-killer" because of the way "he governs" and because, according to his analysis, "he controls Congress and controls the Judiciary," which in his view makes him "have all the characteristics of an authoritarian leader."
Milei has even gone so far as to equate Sánchez with his great political rival in Argentina, Cristina Fernández: "The same aberrations that the Kirchners did in Argentina (...) the same type of strategies, the same actions," he has pointed out, before including the Spanish president in the group of "people who have a power project (...) to enrich themselves illegally."
The Argentine head of state has also expanded his reproaches to the "socialists and their media slaves," whom he has labeled as "failures and sad," dominated by "a gloomy view of life." "So whatever those failures may say," he has pointed out about the possible effect of his visit on Sánchez's polls, "it doesn't concern me at all."
Milei has also downplayed the only public reaction from Sánchez during his time in Spain —the dissemination of a song by Argentine artist Lali Espósito, critical of the Argentine president—. "It means that I am quite important to them. I come from the cultural battle, I have the best 'skills' to demonstrate the wrong path of the socialists," he has indicated, similarly downplaying the insults he directed at SER journalist Julia Molina.
"I had no altercation," Milei has defended. "If you ask me a stupid question, I'm going to tell you. Repeating that stupidity, the problem is yours," he has stated. "It doesn't seem so serious to me. What happens is that many fragile people, you answer socialists and they immediately get offended," the Argentine president has added, justifying his tone.
In general terms, Milei has claimed his trip to Spain as a political and moral obligation, beyond who he may or may not have met during his stay: "It is my moral duty towards a country with which we have an enormous historical and civilizational debt, to alert about the risks of 21st Century Socialism," he has maintained, before reiterating at another point in the interview that his purpose is "to die with my boots on" in that ideological battle.