Milei and Lula: no meeting

Argentine president Javier Milei is expected to embark next week for Maryland, close to Washington, in the United States, where he will participate, between the 21st and 24th, in the Conservative Action Conference, which brings together the cream of international conservatism and will have as its main attraction former President Donald Trump.

With this new trip abroad in Argentina, Milei ratifies her determination to be part of a kind of radical right coalition. Last week, the libertarian met with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and then flew to Italy to meet with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, of the same ideological line. On her tour, Milei also met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. In the conversation, the pontiff showed concern about the Argentine social crisis, dominated by inflation that reached 20.6% in January alone and accumulated an increase of 254.2% in one year.

Milei’s international agenda does not yet include a visit to Brazil to meet President Lula, despite the historic bilateral relationship – at least until the cold relationship between former presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Alberto Fernández. During the presidential campaign, Milei called Lula a “communist”, in a pejorative tone, and signaled that he would not seek a political relationship with a left-wing leader, as he stated. Last week, when approached by a radio station in Minas Gerais, Lula referred to the Argentine president, ruling out problems in the bilateral relationship. Lula recalled that Milei was elected by the Argentines and said that Mercosur is important and the relationship between Brazil and Argentina “is very strong.” Milei has made it clear that her political option is for right-wing or extreme-right leaders. There is no scheduled meeting between him and Lula at least until the Mercosur meeting, probably in July, in Asunción, Paraguay. The temporary presidency of the bloc, which is held every six months, is with the Paraguayans. The Argentine president received his Paraguayan colleague, Santiago Peñan, this Wednesday (14), at Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires.