Jesús Cintora challenged Javier Milei's call to remove Spain's socialists by force and said voters decide who governs. The RTVE presenter also cited Santiago Abascal's backing and Isabel Díaz Ayuso's distinction.
PP and Vox representatives attended the Nueva Economía Forum breakfast in Madrid where Javier Milei addressed an audience on Wednesday 21 October. He spoke during the campaign for Spain’s snap elections, scheduled for 29 November. After RTVE replayed excerpts, Jesús Cintora challenged the Argentine president’s call to remove Spain’s socialists by force and said political leaders are replaced through elections.
The exchange followed earlier coverage of Milei’s attacks on Pedro Sánchez. At the breakfast, Milei called Spain’s prime minister an “unpresentable dictator,” accused him of being a criminal and a thief, and urged that socialists be kicked out. Agencia EFE described the Argentine president’s intervention as a direct entry into Spain’s election debate. Milei also portrayed Spain as the birthplace of liberalism while urging his audience to drive socialists from government by force.
On 'Mañaneros 360', Cintora said Spain’s democratic process rests on the ballot box. He noted that figures from the PP and Vox had attended the event and pointed to the public support Milei received from Santiago Abascal, the Vox leader. Abascal, who was campaigning in Galicia and did not meet Milei in person, later said the Argentine president’s remarks about Sánchez were “not far from reality.” He recalled that he had called the prime minister a tyrant and an autocrat. Cintora also referred to the distinction Isabel Díaz Ayuso had awarded the Argentine president. Ayuso, the president of the Madrid region and a prominent PP opponent of Sánchez, met Milei after the breakfast and posed with him for a photograph.
Milei described himself as a friend of both Abascal and Ayuso, arguing that they shared ideas capable of reversing Spain’s decline. During the visit, he met Ayuso and Vox secretary-general Ignacio Garriga; Sánchez and Milei did not meet. Cintora questioned Milei’s portrayal in light of Argentina’s economic situation. The programme’s panel said inflation there had been brought under control, while political scientist Luis Arroyo said this came at the cost of sharply higher inequality and the impoverishment of the middle classes. Arroyo also described Milei as one of Latin America’s least-valued leaders.
Cintora also criticised Esperanza Aguirre’s support for Milei, accusing her of relying on false claims that Argentina had been lifted out of poverty. The article recalled Milei’s remark last August, when he blamed poor economic figures on what he characterised as feminists’ passion for killing children. The Spanish government condemned Milei’s remarks about Sánchez as “insults and slander.” His attendance at the Ibero-American Summit, scheduled for 4–5 November, remained unconfirmed.
