Without any major official announcements but with four more personal awards in his suitcase, President Javier Milei closed this Monday in Prague, Czech Republic, the European tour that included Spain and Germany, and his return to Buenos Aires is expected this Tuesday.
In Prague, the last stop on his ninth trip abroad since he became president, Milei combined an agenda of official meetings with private events. Milei held interviews with the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, at Prague Castle and with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, in Prague, and also participated in an event organized by a liberal institution.
At the Zofín Palace in the Czech capital, Milei was awarded the prize of the Liberal Institute of the Czech Republic this afternoon. Before the audience, Milei spoke about economic theory and reviewed his presidential administration, just as he did last Friday, when in Madrid he received a distinction from the Juan de Mariana Institute. In the Spanish capital, he was also received by the head of the Community of Madrid, the conservative Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who presented him with the International Medal of Madrid. In Spain, Milei once again criticized the socialist president Pedro Sánchez and did not hold any meetings with representatives of Spanish royalty.
President Milei spoke at the award ceremony at the Zofin Palace in Prague. He predicted that “hand in hand with the ideas of freedom and technological progress, free markets, respect for private property, respect for life,” Argentina could “become the most brilliant case in the history of humanity to become rich again.”
He also alluded to the new book he is co-writing with an advisor. “With my chief advisor, Dr. Demian Reidel, we are rewriting much of economic theory. If it ends up going well, they will probably give me the Nobel Prize in Economics along with Demian,” Milei said.
He reiterated a phrase said in other presentations: “In 6 months of government we made the largest fiscal adjustment not only in Argentine history but also in humanity.”
As part of the presidential trip, Defense Minister Luis Petri signed a memorandum of understanding on military-technical cooperation with the Czech Republic.
The other award received by Milei was the one given to him by the Hayek Society, in Hamburg, for the promotion of liberal ideas. This institution has ties to the far-right party, AFD (Alternative for Germany), which is why left-wing protesters demonstrated outside the event.
In Berlin, meanwhile, Milei was received by the Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, perhaps the most politically relevant meeting of the tour. However, Milei and Scholz did not hold a press conference.
On Monday morning, interviewed by Radio Miter, Milei referred to the Berlin meeting: “We were talking about some problems that German companies had in Argentina and how we were making progress in solving these problems. We addressed issues regarding natural resources of extreme importance for Germany and that would be motivating many investments to be made in Argentina and we were discussing Argentina’s entry into the OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and NATO and what it has to see in the sense of integration between Mercosur and the European economic community,” commented Milei.
About the meeting, the German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” headlined “Scholz asks that the measures be acceptable from a social point of view.” The article quotes Chancellery spokesman Steffen Hebestreit about the concern of Scholz, a social democrat, about the social impact of the reforms promoted by Milei.
As reported by the Casa Rosada press, “Scholz especially highlighted the clear position that Argentina has maintained since the beginning of the Milei government in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Middle East, highlighting the convergence of visions in foreign policy of both governments.”
Milei returns to the country this Tuesday, in a week in which Deputies will once again discuss the Bases Law, corrected in the Senate.
This Monday, the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos, received the governors at Casa Rosada Marcelo Orrego (San Juan), Claudio Poggi (Saint Louis), and Maximiliano Pullaro (Santa Fe) to sign agreements to advance the development of public works in their provinces that are paralyzed.
For now, the governors of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, La Rioja, Corrientes, Santiago del Estero, Formosa, Tierra del Fuego, Río Negro and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires have not visited Casa Rosada. In this lot, leaders critical of the liberal administration are mixed with others who did not sign their respective agreements for agenda reasons.
