Milei accuses Brazilians of making people cough and disturbing him during the debate

The president-elect of Argentina, Javier Milei, said this Tuesday (21) that Brazilian marketers who worked on Sergio Massa’s campaign had people intentionally coughing in the audience during their speeches in the last debate before the elections on Sunday (19).

“On the day of the debate, Massa… not actually Massa, his Brazilian advisors, had ‘coughers’ (sic), precisely to disturb me at the moment I was speaking. When I made my final reflection in the debate, everyone was coughing together”, said Milei in an interview with journalist Esteban Trebucq on channel A24.

When contacted by CNN, Massa’s campaign did not comment.

Milei had already complained about people coughing on purpose during the debate, but had not held Brazilian marketers responsible.

In the interview, the president-elect said that he managed to deal with the situation after talking to Macri about an interview in which he complained and asked for silence after being interrupted in the studio during an interview, also for Trebucq, when he was a candidate.

“Macri told me to be careful because I’m actually listening to what’s happening, but as there are no microphones on the other side, people don’t hear. That’s why someone maliciously said that I heard voices and I thank him immensely for clarifying [que realmente havia pessoas falando no estúdio]”, said Milei, saying that there was an attempt to treat him as crazy.

According to Milei, Macri said that when he had to speak in the Chamber of Deputies, he had to continue speaking despite the shouts and insults he heard.

“His microphone was open and the others weren’t, so if he responded or said things, he would look crazy.”

“He told me to avoid situations like the ones we were mentioning, and look how important it was,” he says, stating that knowing Macri’s experience helped him throughout the debate, but especially in the final speech.