Overview
- Opposition lawmaker Miguel Ángel Pichetto said the Milei administration is executing an ideologically driven plan to tear down Argentina’s industrial base.
- He condemned the President’s public attacks on Techint’s Paolo Rocca after an Indian firm, Welspun, beat Techint for pipes in a roughly 500 km Vaca Muerta gas project, arguing the government should have helped the local company compete.
- Pichetto targeted ministers Luis Caputo and Federico Sturzenegger, calling Sturzenegger’s free‑market view “stupid” and criticizing Caputo’s remark that he never buys Argentine clothing as the textile sector struggles.
- He warned that over 70% of apparel sold domestically is imported from China and noted that U.S. tariffs of about 50% on Argentine steel and aluminum still stand despite closer ties with Washington.
- He argued a labor reform pushed for extraordinary sessions will not create jobs in a deep recession with eroded wages and linked institutional strains to Marco Lavagna’s resignation from INDEC and the creation of an Official Response Office to counter media narratives.