Argentine President Javier Milei will travel next week to the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy, a spokesman for the libertarian leader told Reuters on Thursday, contradicting reports that he had backed out of the trip.

The summit is set to take place from June 13-15, the spokesman said. Milei will appear at the G7 gathering due to an invitation he received from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In Italy, he will cross paths with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, an ideological nemesis for the Argentina president and the only other Latin American leader invited to the summit.  

Milei will go back to Argentina after the meeting and return to Europe at a later date, specifically Spain and Germany. He will return to Madrid after his controversial appearance at a Vox gathering in May. On June 21, he is set to receive recognition from the Juan Mariana Institute for his “exemplary defense of the ideas of freedom,” according to the organization’s website. 

The following day, he will be awarded the Hayek Medal in Germany, an award created in honor of Nobel Prize in Economics, Frederic von Hayek. It is unclear if he will attend the Ukaine peace summit to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16 or meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, initially scheduled to take place in Paris on June 19.

The president’s package of proposed market reforms faces a key vote next week, and opposition lawmakers are pushing to pull some key provisions from the text. The Senate session to vote on the bill known as the Ley Bases and the fiscal package will take place on Wednesday, June 12.

Although the Lower House approved both bills in late April, the process in the Senate became much more drawn-out than the government wanted. It was eventually forced to compromise on a number of changes to get a final version, a necessary step in order for the legislation to move from the commissions to the floor. It is unclear, however, if the government has the necessary votes to get them approved. 

If the Senate passes both bills, they would automatically return to the Lower House to see if deputies approve or reject the changes. The bills would become law whether the modifications are approved or not, given that both chambers approved them as a whole.

–Reuters/Herald