The visit of Argentine President Javier Milei to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), which is expected on Sunday, will take place without military honors or a press conference. As deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said in Berlin, “changes have occurred at short notice.” It is “just a short working visit,” she said on Wednesday. Last week there was still talk of an “inaugural visit.”
For the second time, a meeting between the Chancellor and another head of government will take place without a press conference. Hoffmann referred to scheduling reasons. It is in the Chancellor’s interest that press meetings take place as often as possible, she said. She did not say at whose request the press conference was cancelled.
According to the news portal “Politico”, the shortening of the program (now only one hour) was initiated by the Argentines, but there is no official confirmation of this.
Milei was elected President of Argentina in December last year. He stands for a neoliberal course and wants to overhaul the state and the economy with comprehensive structural reforms. The libertarian also describes the state as a “criminal organization”. The journalists’ organization “Reporters Without Borders” accuses Milei of having an “aggressive attitude towards journalists”.
The Argentine president is already in Germany on Saturday, in Hamburg to be precise. There he will be awarded a prize by the libertarian Hayek Society. The eccentric 53-year-old, who symbolically waved a chainsaw during the election campaign against what he sees as excessive government spending, has been in office for six months.
According to experts, the trip to Germany is probably his most important state visit to date. Both Scholz and Milei want to adopt the controversial free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur states.
Last week, Milei appeared at the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy. His only bilateral meetings included meeting the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. During his brief meetings with top politicians and Pope Francis, he was visibly nervous at times. He then assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of his support at the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland.
Milei has already flown to the USA five times. He has, however, given Latin America and even the neighboring Mercosur states of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia a wide berth. He only met his like-minded counterpart, President Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador. He has also met his most prominent sympathizer, US billionaire Elon Musk, twice.
In Spain, Milei recently caused a diplomatic scandal of the first order: At an election campaign event of the right-wing extremist Vox party, he insulted the wife of the social democratic head of government Pedro Sánchez as corrupt and, after his return, also insulted Sánchez. Madrid then withdrew the ambassador. Spanish companies are the second largest investors in Argentina. Nevertheless, Milei went one step further on Tuesday and called Sánchez a “coward” in a television interview.