Milei slams 'progressive hypocrisy' as Fernández faces gender violence charge

President Javier Milei on Wednesday criticised "progressive hypocrisy" after his predecessor in office Alberto Fernández was accused of domestic violence.

Fernández's ex-girlfriend Fabiola Yáñez, 43, on Tuesday filed a complaint accusing him of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office in 2023.

In a lengthy post on the X social network, Milei said the accusations against his Peronist predecessor in office highlighted "the progressive hypocrisy" against the "scam that they called 'gender policies.'"

Since taking office in December, Milei has scrapped the national Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry and the INADI anti-discrimination agency, while banning the use of gender-inclusive language in the military.

He lashed out at those accusing him and his government of slashing rights and being "sexist, violent and misogynistic."

"As we have maintained for years, the solution to the violence that psychopaths exercise against women is not to create a Ministry of Women, it is not to hire thousands of unnecessary public employees," he said.

"The only solution to reduce crime is to be tough against those who commit it," he wrote.

The scandal surrounding Fernández, 65, erupted when text messages detailing the alleged violence cropped up in a separate fraud investigation.

Yáñez's lawyer, Juan Pablo Fioribello, told the La Nacion+ television channel on Tuesday that messages detailing the alleged attacks, with photographic evidence, were found on the phone of Fernández's private secretary, María Cantero.

The phone was being analysed as part of a probe into alleged influence-peddling during Fernández's administration.

After initially deciding not to press charges, Yáñez later contacted the investigating judge and “told him, 'I want to file a criminal complaint. I want to denounce him [Fernández] for the blows I received from him and the threats I have been suffering'," stated Fioribello.

Local media reported that Fernández has been forbidden from leaving the country amid the probe.

The former president, who led Argentina from 2019 to 2023, denies the allegations. "The truth of the facts is different" and "it never happened," the Peronist leader said in a statement on the X social network.

He said that for "the integrity" of his children and "Fabiola herself" he would not make any statements and would only provide "evidence and testimony that will show what really happened."

Lawyer Fioribello, who has also represented Fernández in other legal matters, previously said the former president denied hitting Yáñez, but admitted the couple had bad arguments.

Yáñez and Fernández have a son who was born in 2022, during the veteran politician’s time as head of state. They separated after he left office in 2023. 

She lives in Madrid with their son Francisco and the ex-president lives in Buenos Aires. 

– TIMES/AFP/NA