Spain • • • 🌿 Progressive

Reunión virtual entre Santiago Abascal y Javier Milei
Abascal, en precampaña en Avilés, y Milei, de visita en Madrid, se reunieron por videollamada este miércoles, sin fotografía oficial entre ambos. · ABC

No official photo as insults to Sánchez and pensions overshadow Milei visit

Milei visited Madrid and met by video call with Abascal, in Avilés for the pre-campaign, with no official photograph for the first time.

--- The context --- The day that was meant to strengthen Javier Milei's ties with the Spanish right ended without the official photograph between the main leaders of the right. For the first time since Milei's arrival at the presidency of Argentina, there will be no photograph between Santiago Abascal and his main partner in Latin America. Milei was visiting Madrid this Wednesday while Abascal was in Avilés, in Asturias, to star in a major public event to mobilise the electorate. The visit was not a breath of fresh air for the right-wing forces: the Argentine leader's chainsaw clashes with the first, and so far only, controversy of the campaign, the pensions debate. --- The facts --- At an informative breakfast beforehand, Milei said the socialists had to be kicked out because Spain is the cradle of liberalism. He also accused Pedro Sánchez of being a dictator and disrespected a journalist, saying that her question was that of intellectually limited people, as was the case with her. He then went to the Fundación Disenso, associated with Vox, to meet Ignacio Garriga, vice-president of Vox; the MEP Jorge Martín Frías, director of the think tank; and José María Figaredo, in charge of the party's deregulation area. Also on the agenda was Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid. --- The positions --- The two then connected by video call to joke about the morning's controversies. Milei joked that he had been told Abascal no longer loved him. Abascal, smiling, replied that this was precisely why Milei was sitting in his office, and apologised for his absence, explaining that he now lived in a van travelling around northern Spain. Milei then acknowledged that there was nothing more fun than kicking left-wing backsides because they were very upset on hearing the truth. Abascal said he was surprised by the uproar after the insults to Sánchez, whom he himself calls a dictator and an autocrat, and argued that the label came too close to reality to count as an insult. Milei doubled down, recalled that he had also called Sánchez a thief and commented that it had all been well said. --- What remains unknown --- What was discussed at the Fundación Disenso meeting is not known, nor the outcome of the planned meeting with Ayuso, nor any response from Sánchez. --- Unanswered questions --- Will Sánchez respond to being called a dictator, an autocrat and a thief? Will there finally be a photograph between Abascal and Milei? What was discussed at the Fundación Disenso? How will the defence of the viability of pensions be made concrete? --- EPM analysis --- The balance is an alliance displayed at a distance and a controversy concentrated in language: the labels aimed at Sánchez, the contempt for a journalist and the jokes about opponents occupied the centre, while the pensions debate was left in the background. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the problem with this day is not the distance between Madrid and Avilés, but the tone that occupied the place where the photograph should have been: insults aimed at the head of the government, contempt towards a journalist and jokes about kicking left-wing backsides. Whoever defends the viability of pensions and accepts that the system needs reform owes citizens that debate with arguments and institutional respect; turning the pre-campaign into a succession of disqualifications impoverishes that discussion.
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