President Javier Milei had his first bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Friday. The two had met at the G7 summit in Italy last June but this was their first formal sit-down.

The leaders discussed several topics for close to an hour in the French presidential palace. The Argentine president was accompanied by Presidential Secretary Karina Milei, as well as Ian Sielecki (Ambassador to France) and Gerardo Werthein (Vice President of the International Olympic Committee and Argentine Ambassador to the United States). 

According to Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni, Milei thanked Macron for France’s support with the IMF as well as for backing Argentina’s bid to become a NATO Global Partner. The two also discussed the approval of the Ley Bases and Milei’s program of economic reform, as well as the situation in Ukraine and Venezuela.   

Adorni pointed out that President Macron extended a “direct and special thanks” to Karina Milei for apologizing on behalf of the Argentine government for the controversial post on X made by Vice President Victoria Villarruel defending Argentina’s national football team after they were seen singing a racist chant directed at French players. 

In her post, the VP claimed that Argentina “never had colonies or second-class citizens” and “never imposed its way of life on anyone” and that the government wouldn’t tolerate that being done to Argentina, in reference to the French Football Federation’s legal complaint in connection to the chant issued during the Copa América win celebration.

Macron “personally appreciated” her intervention, Adorni said. 

Following this meeting, Milei met with businesspeople in the Argentine embassy. In the afternoon, he is set to attend the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, one of over 100 world leaders who will take part in the event. With 136 members, the Argentine delegation will appear in slot number 12, per the official protocol. 

Milei will remain in France for one more day of activities before returning to Argentina on Saturday night. 

Condemnation from French relatives of desaparecidos

Relatives of French victims of the Argentine dictatorship condemned the meeting between Macron and Milei, arguing that the libertarian leader denies the crimes of the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

“Since he took office in December 2023, the far right president Javier Milei and his Vice President Victoria Villarruel, as well as several ministers and deputies of his party, have nurtured the intention to release convicted criminals,” said a communiqué published on Wednesday by the Association of the Families of French Desaparecidos in Argentina with the title “France does not forget.” 

The communiqué warned that Macron should be “reminded that an investigation is currently underway concerning the disappearance, during the Argentine dictatorship, of 20 French citizens.”

The military junta forcibly took power on March 24, 1976, through a coup, dissolved Congress, and put the Constitution and civil rights on stand-by. The de facto government kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and hid the bodies of 30,000 people (desaparecidos,  Spanish for “disappeared”), including French nuns Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon.

“That a President of the French Republic receives Javier Milei, who does not see that the dictatorship was one of the most tragic chapters of Argentine history, is something that cannot be tolerated,” Thonon-Wesfried told the Herald. She added that Duquet and Domon’s disappearance was an “ever-present subject” in France.