Tension over racist chants by Argentine footballers against their French counterparts was the backdrop to the meeting held this Friday at the Elysee Palace in Paris by the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei, and France, Emmanuel Macron. The meeting served to show that the controversy has been overcome, after the Argentine vice president, Victoria Villarruel, supported the players and called France a “hypocritical” and “colonialist” nation. But, at the same time, the meeting exposed the internal problems of Milei’s government.
Hours before the opening of the Olympic Games, where the Argentine president was present, Macron received the far-right leader Milei, who arrived accompanied by his sister Karina, secretary general of the Presidency. On the steps of the palace, the presidents exchanged hugs and patted hands. They had already met briefly last month at the G-7 summit held in Puglia, Italy.
The Argentine ambassador to France, Ian Sielecki, was also present at the bilateral meeting. The foreign minister, Diana Mondino, was not present – she was not even part of the delegation – but the ambassador to the United States, Gerardo Werthein, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, was. The meeting lasted an hour and there was no press conference at the end. nor statements from the presidents.
“The two heads of state set out new areas of work in the fields of energy transition, defence, culture and scientific research,” the French government statement on the meeting said. It added that they discussed, in particular, possible cooperation for the protection of the oceans and, in Antarctica, the poles and glaciers.
According to his government, Milei thanked Macron for France’s support for Argentina both in NATO and the OECD – which the South American country intends to join – and in the board of the International Monetary Fund – with which it is seeking a new agreement. The Argentine president also spoke at length about the benefits of his measures to deregulate the economy, reduce the size of the State and promote foreign investment. Although he expressed his interest in promoting French investment, Macron mentioned the difficulties that companies from his country have had in Argentina.
Both leaders agreed on their support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and on “the desire to work together for the benefit of Venezuelan democracy.” Another issue they discussed, but on which no progress was made, was the complex negotiation for a trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.
Racism and discrimination
Milei arrived in France on Thursday, when the echo of the discriminatory chants chanted last week by the Argentine national team’s footballers when they won the Copa América and which were directed at French players of African origin could still be heard. Vice President Villarruel had reacted with a nationalist message and an attack on the blue when France and its football federation demanded sanctions for the Argentine team. Although Milei does not usually apologize for his outbursts, his sister Karina then sought to defuse a new diplomatic conflict for the ultra administration: at the French embassy in Buenos Aires, she assured that the president did not share the position of his vice president, who was completely disavowed.
Although the French government did not officially refer to the matter, Milei’s administration took care to do so on repeated occasions. After the meeting this Friday at the Elysee Palace, it did so again, in a clear internal message. “President Macron took a moment to thank Mrs. Karina Milei directly and especially for her words last week on the occasion of the controversy over the sports chants and the unfortunate tweet by the vice president. He said personally that he had appreciated her intervention,” reported the Argentine executive’s spokesperson. The differences between Milei and Villarruel have been growing since the government took office last December and are no longer hidden.
Entrepreneurs and return
After the bilateral meeting with Macron, Milei and her sister met with businessmen at the Le Metropolitan hotel, where the Argentine delegation was staying. Participants included Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia, a company dedicated to water, waste and energy management; Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies, a business group in the petrochemical and energy sector; Xavier Niel, from Illiad, a telecommunications company; Alexandre de Rothschild, president of the Rothschild group; and Thomas Triomphe, vice president of Vaccines at the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. The president repeated his speech seeking to attract investors. The businessmen noted the need for economic stability in the country and the difficulties generated by foreign exchange restrictions.
Milei’s Parisian agenda continued with a return to the Elysee Palace to attend the reception offered by Macron to the leaders who had traveled to attend the opening of the Olympic Games. Then, both attended the opening party on the banks of the Seine. Milei’s twelfth trip abroad in his seven and a half months as president will conclude this Saturday, when he will return to Argentina.
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