Argentine union leader calls minister ‘little Jew boy’

An Argentinian union leader criticizes the country’s interior minister, Axel Kicillof, during a radio interview saying that “the little Jew boy gives no answer” to workers’ demands.”

Luis Barrionuevo on Wednesday discussed a national general strike initiated the previous day by the union, referring to the minister as “el Rusito,” the Little Russian. “Russian” is a popular slang term used to refer to Jews in Argentina.

The president of the national Jewish political umbrella DAIA, Julio Schlosser, tells JTA that these “discriminatory expressions are very upsetting. We regret these statements by Luis Barrionuevo and condemn them.”

Alerted by the show host, Ernesto Tenembaum, that the slur was offensive, Barrionuevo, the leader of the CGT Azul y Blanca, or Blue and white CGT union, justifies it by saying: “that’s how his cabinet colleagues refer to him.” Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez responded by saying in his daily meeting with journalists that “the little Russian is a brilliant minister.”

“Everybody calls him this. When I talk with members of the government they refer to the minister as El Rusito. I didn’t discriminate against him,” Barrionuevo says in another radio interview with Jewish journalist Martin Liberman, who asked Barrionuevo if he has problems with Jews. “I have Jewish friends,” Barrionuevo says.

— JTA