In his personal account of X, the president Javier Milei shot at the businessmen Paolo RoccaCEO of Techint, Javier Madanes Quintanilla, owner of the FATE tire factory and ALUAR, and Roberto Mendez maximum responsible for Neumen tires. On the social network, the president responded to a tweet by journalist Tomas Diaz Cueto, which explained the dishonest maneuvers of national corporations.
“Rocca wanted to bid with an abysmal premium; Textile industrialists admitted unheard-of margins and factory industrialists admitted to working with stock and profitability of 70%. All sponsored by the old policy and its protectionism,” Diaz Cueto listed in good Argentines… Scrap and Gum “they fully activated the principle of revelation.”
Moments later, on the same platform, Milei messaged: “I deeply appreciate with all my soul the enormous contributions they have made. Mr. Junk of the Expensive Tubes, Mr. Aluminum Gomita and Mr. Loose Tongue in the last 30 days. They have exposed the corrupt system that sank good Argentines. Thank you very much for this great contribution to the awakening of a country that, despite these criminals, wants to be great again.”
The dispute between Rocca and the president has been going on since January, surrounding a tender to provide pipes for a key gas pipeline between Vaca Muerta and Río Negro. Techint was left out of the process in favor of an Indian company with a cheaper offer, which Milei and those around him interpreted as a sign of resistance from the local industrial sector to the opening of markets. In this context, the president published in his account x that Rocca—whom he disparagingly called “Don Chatarrín de los Tubitos Caros”—was part of a “corrupt system that sank good Argentines.”
Despite the aggressiveness of the presidential criticism, the CEO responded publicly by trying to explain why his products were more expensive in that tender, arguing input and production factors; Although he did not make an ideological reply in the same political tone, his letter sought to defend the competitiveness of the company and the role of Techint in the country.
Instead, the collision with Madanes Quintanilla It occurred within the framework of the announcement of the closure of the historic Argentine tire factory Fatewhich left 920 workers unemployed and generated a strong social and union reaction. The national government blamed both the company and the unions for the measure and stated that the timing of the decision was “suspicious” because it coincided with the debate on labor reform in Congress. For his part, the businessman had maintained in past interviews the need to improve competitiveness conditions and criticized what he considered obstacles to the local industrial sector.
At the center of the controversy over tires also emerged the figure of Roberto Mendezof Neumenwhose public statements about prices in the sector further inflamed the debate. In a dialogue with streaming Now Playthe businessman stated crudely: “I am the first to admit it: the multinationals were stealing, we, the businessmen, because we had a market that was not real. We never earned as much money as when they allowed us to do what we were doing” when referring to times of high prices protected by import restrictions.
Méndez’s words did not stop there: he added that under normal conditions the profit should be “no less than 22%” before taxes, contrasting with margins of “60-70%” in the past. These statements were taken up by Milei, who used them to reinforce his argument against what he calls “cheap nationalism” which – according to his vision – would cover up business practices harmful to consumers, in addition to describing him as “Mr. Loose Tongue.”
Of course, the presidential offensive was not limited only to viral nicknames: in previous public events Milei had defended the opening of markets and criticized what he considered “shady deals” between large companies and the State. In an intervention in Right Fest in Mar del Plata he maintained that “If they want to do shady business with the State, they must go bankrupt”a phrase read by many as intended for leaders like Rocca.
This scenario of back and forth between the national government and the industrial sector overlaps with other broader debates in the Argentine economy – on employment, globalization and the role of the State – but it has installed on the public agenda an image of confrontation that is difficult to close without negotiated advances or new chapters of public response from those involved.
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