Milei calls bribery scandal a lie after facing ‘rain of rocks’

President Javier Milei accused Argentina’s opposition of desperately trying to halt economic progress after he was pelted with stones during a campaign event amid allegations of bribery within his cabinet.

“This week’s operation is nothing more than another item on the long list of tricks by the caste and, like all the previous ones, just another lie,” Milei said Thursday during a business luncheon in Buenos Aires. 

“It was very moving to face the rain of rocks yesterday” alongside lawmaker José Luis Espert and his sister, Karina Milei, the president added later in his speech. “It was an incredible spectacle. You could see the desperation.”

Milei said he will leave it up to the justice system to clear up the scandal, and that his government remains at its disposal.

Last week, local media published leaked audio recordings of Diego Spagnuolo, the previous head of the national disability agency and Milei’s longtime legal adviser, allegedly describing kickbacks worth between US$500,000 and US$800,000 a month on state drug purchases. In the recordings, which haven’t been verified, Spagnuolo points to Karina – who serves as Milei’s presidential chief-of-staff – and her top aide, Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, as the benefactors. The president fired Spagnuolo the day after the messages became public. Menem has denied any wrongdoing.

Milei faces a key electoral challenge on September 7 in Buenos Aires Province, a stronghold for the Personist opposition led by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Investors are watching that race closely as a barometer for what’s to come on October 26, when Argentines will renew a large chunk of Congress. The libertarian leader is hoping to secure enough seats there to cement his pro-market reforms.

The sudden eruption of a corruption scandal just weeks ahead the vote, however, has sapped some of his momentum given he came to power in 2023 promising to end the “decadence” that has long marked Argentina’s political class.

“Everything he says is a lie,” Milei told reporters when asked about Spagnuolo during a campaign visit to Lomas de Zamora, a suburban neighbourhood south of the capital, on Wednesday. Minutes later, rocks were hurled at the President and his sister, bringing the visit to an abrupt end. 

A survey this week by Buenos Aires-based pollster Management & Fit found that a majority of voters believed the corruption allegations were serious, but more than 80 percent of respondents planned to leave their votes unchanged.

On Wednesday, newspaper La Nación reported that Spagnuolo had deleted all messages with the Milei siblings before his phone was confiscated by the federal justice system last week. Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos, meanwhile, dismissed the scandal as a “political operation” and “defamation without evidence” during his monthly report to the lower house of Congress.

Milei vowed in his speech to press ahead with his agenda after what he predicts will be a successful midterm election for his government. A second wave of reforms will follow, he said, beginning with tax cuts, then an overhaul of labour laws, and finally the lifting of more economic restrictions.