The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, met this Sunday in Berlin with the Argentine president, Javier Milei, the protagonist of a two-day visit to Germany that has caused discomfort for the host government. The social democrat Scholz received him at the Chancellery for a short working meeting without a joint press conference between both leaders and without military honors upon his arrival, due to Milei’s “clear refusal” to hold a press conference, as he already noted on Friday. the government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit. It is Javier Milei’s first meeting with a socialist leader since he arrived at the Casa Rosada six months ago.
The German Government reported on the meeting between both leaders in a brief statement in which it noted that Scholz and Milei discussed their reform plans and their repercussions for the Argentine population. “In this sense, the chancellor stressed that, from his point of view, the social compatibility of the reforms and the protection of social cohesion must be important criteria,” the statement says.
The two leaders also addressed the negotiations for a trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur states, and agreed that they should be “completed quickly.” Germany would support Argentina’s entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The meeting lasted approximately one hour.
The Argentine president received the medal from the Hayek Society, a German liberal-right entity, on Saturday in Hamburg.
On Saturday, Javier Milei, an economist who defines himself as a libertarian and anarcho-capitalist, was in Hamburg to receive the medal from the Hayek Society, a neoliberal entity that believes that the Argentine president is leading a fundamental change of course.
At the handover ceremony, in which, as he was later in Berlin, he was accompanied by his sister Karina, Argentine President Milei gave a 50-minute speech in which he defended his ultra-liberal recipe to reduce inflation and boost economic recovery, and charged against the socialism.
“Not only have we fought the cultural battle, but now we are carrying it out in reality; The reason why the socialists are so violent is because it is working and they are failing,” said Milei, who assured that the fiscal deficit in his country is reducing. “Obviously this was not going to be cost-free; But we always told people to their faces that there was no money, that it was going to be hard, that the beginning was going to be complicated,” she insisted.
The Argentine president, Javier Milei (right), and Stefan Kooths, president of the Hayek Society, on June 22 in Hamburg at the presentation of the medal to the Argentine
Daniel Bockwoldt /dpa via AP
According to data released this Sunday by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), German companies in Argentina appreciate the results of the Milei adjustments, describing them as “mixed”: on the one hand, the reduction in domestic demand is worrying, but On the other hand, business expectations have improved.
Germany is the eighth foreign investor in Argentina, behind countries such as the United States and Spain, with interests in the manufacturing, mineral and oil extraction, and both wholesale and retail trade sectors. Industries such as Siemens, Volkswagen and Bayer are present there.
The Hayek Society of Hamburg that awarded Milei – not to be confused with the renowned Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation, based in Freiburg and defender of classical neoliberalism – is criticized in Germany for not distancing itself from far-right names. Among its partners is Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Beatrix von Storch.
Javier Milei will leave this European tour with three distinctions: Hamburg; the International medal of the Community of Madrid given to him on Friday by its president, Isabel Ayuso; and the one that a liberal institute will confer on him this Monday in Prague. In the Czech Republic he will also meet with the prime minister, the conservative Petr Fiala, and with the president, Petr Pavel, with the latter in a private meeting.
ASIER MARTIAREnA | Madrid
