MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine president denies shopping spree in Rome

The Argentine government “emphatically” denied a publication in the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera, which with “manifest malice” reported about some alleged extravagant shopping of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during her recent visit to Rome for the summit on hunger emergency.

The shopping tour "never took place" says the letter addressed to the Editor in Chief of the renowned Italian daily Paolo Mieli by the Argentine presidency spokesperson Miguel Angel Nuñez. The letter also demands an apology and a rectification from the Italian newspaper since the article is "unfairly offensive" for the Argentine president. The Italian press article was also published in Buenos Aires by La Nacion and other local media. "The Argentine government does not normally get involved in controversies of this nature" but "given the significance of the media under your management and the manifest malice which the article reflects, we feel obliged to express our most emphatic denial of all that is stated in the article", adds the letter. According to Corriere della SeraMrs Kirchner, --who is known for her shopping weakness--, purchased expensive jewels at the exclusive Bulgari's plus towels and bed linen at Pratesi, another posh shop, before the meeting organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture in Rome on the world hunger emergency. The "frivolity" of Mrs. Kirchner according to Corriere Della Sera went even further when on the vigil of the FAO meeting she dined in the garden of the Eden Hotel, where the Argentine delegation was lodged, and sat at "Fellini's table", which was once reserved for the famous film director, and chose as a view Saint Peter's basilica cupola. Nuñez complains the article describes "a frivolous and extravagant" of the president in the framework of a trip to address in FAO an issue of major urgency and seriousness as is the international food crisis". "The shopping tour never existed. The official reports from Italian Protocol and Security which followed the president at all times during her stay in Rome, are there to show the absolute falsehood of what was published" by Corriere Della Sera.Legal representatives from Argentina in Italy have sent document letters to Bulgari and Pratesi "requesting denial of the alleged statements of staff from those shops regarding the alleged shopping visits, which simply did not take place", writes Nuñez. "We believe this kind of malicious reporting, published without the necessary confirmation which should be the norm in a newspaper of international prestige, are unfairly aggravating for the Argentine head of State", he adds. Finally the letter requests a "formal and public denial" of the article, "which lacks truth and in unfounded" and demands an apology to the Argentine president.