BERLIN, June 23 (DPA/EP) –
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, received the Argentine President, Javier Milei, this Sunday at the Chancellery headquarters in Berlin, in a visit without the usual military honors or joint press conference.
The meeting between the two leaders, with clearly different political tendencies and styles, began with the arrival of Milei by car and a brief photo session, in which both greeted each other with a handshake.
During the welcome, several dozen protesters protested in front of the Chancellery against the visit using banners with slogans such as “Out with Milei.”
However, not much will be seen of the meeting. The initially planned reception with military honors, customary for the first visit of any newly elected president, was canceled at short notice.
As stated on Friday by German Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the reason for the change was due to a request from Milei himself. Likewise, the spokesperson spoke of a “clear refusal of the Argentine president to give a press conference”, so the visit will be limited in principle to one hour.
The dialogue between social democrat Scholz and self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” Milei is likely to focus mainly on economic issues. Argentina has large reserves of raw materials, such as lithium, which Germany urgently needs to carry out its energy transition.
In addition, they are also expected to focus on the stalled talks on a free trade agreement between the European Union and the South American trading bloc Mercosur, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Milei, elected with more than 55% of the vote in November’s presidential election, arrived in Germany on Saturday to receive a medal from the Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation in the northern port city of Hamburg.
The controversial president collected the award from the organization, which bears the name of the Austrian pioneer of neoliberalism, while hundreds of protesters protested against him in the vicinity of the entity’s headquarters.
Around 200 supporters attended the award ceremony, including prominent right-wing German politicians such as Beatrix von Storch, a legislator from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In his speech, Milei adopted a rather moderate tone and limited himself to explaining his line of radical liberal reforms.
Since taking office in December last year, Milei has made official visits to Israel, Italy and El Salvador. She also recently attended the G7 summit in Italy, as well as the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.
However, Milei skipped trips to important neighboring countries, such as Brazil and Chile, customary for newly elected Argentine presidents for ideological reasons.
Instead, the neoliberal politician met in the United States with Tesla boss Elon Musk, visited former US President Donald Trump at the ultra-conservative CPAC conference and even appeared at a rally for the European elections in Spain, invited by the populist Santiago Abascal. .
There he railed against socialism and was celebrated as a rock star. He also called President Pedro Sánchez’s wife “corrupt”, which caused a diplomatic scandal between both countries. Spain accused him of “interference in internal affairs” and Milei rejected the request for a public apology.
The scandal with Sánchez meant that he did not meet with representatives of the Government or with King Felipe VI. Instead, he did so, among others, with the regional president of Madrid, the conservative Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who gave him a decoration.
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