Argentina’s self-described anarcho-capitalist President Javier Milei is rounding off a controversial European tour with a visit to Czechia. Monday’s visit was to include meetings with the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and President Petr Pavel.
Milei has caused controversy throughout his visit, condemning left-wing parties and snubbing European leaders.
Friday’s visit to Spain saw Milei reject visits with senior government officials, instead meeting with Madrid’s powerful right-wing regional president, Isabel DÃaz Ayuso, who is an outspoken opponent of Spain’s center-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
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Ahead of the visit, Milei accused the socialist government of bringing “poverty and death” to Spain.
The Argentine president then met with German officials on Sunday in Berlin but refused the offer of a news conference.
In a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday, the two leaders discussed Argentina’s radical economic shifts, said Manuel Adroni, a spokesperson for Milei, in a statement on Sunday.
“The meeting between President Milei and Chancellor Scholz and their teams showed two leaders with a convergent vision, with the same principles and values in international politics and focused on solving key geopolitical challenges for the West,” Adroni wrote.
The visit was a “very short working visit, expressly at the wish of the Argentine president,” according to Scholz’s spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, who said Milei refused to hold a news conference.
A greeting with military honors and a joint news conference that the German government originally announced were later canceled.
Scholz’s center-left politics and style contrast sharply with those of the Argentine president. Milei, a right-wing figure known for his unfiltered way of speaking, was elected last year on the promise to fix Argentina’s troubled economy and to “make Argentina great again.”
His austerity measures have fueled waves of mass protests in the South American nation, while he has been criticized by human rights activists after he called abortion “murder” and called the country’s feminist movement a “cult of a gender ideology.”
Milei accepted an award from the neoliberal Augusto von Hayek Foundation in the German port city of Hamburg on Saturday for “freeing the population from shackles” and restoring “hope.”
In a speech as he accepted the award, Milei declared he was defeating the “socialists” with “the largest fiscal adjustment in history of Argentina.” He was met with chants of “freedom!” in Spanish.
There were small protests outside the awards ceremony and the meeting between Milei and Scholz, with demonstrators carrying signs reading “down with Milei, down with the far-Right government” and “Argentina is not for sale” in Spanish and German.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.