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Argentine president Javier Milei in Spain for far-right conference
FRANCE 24 English
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5/19/2024
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00:00
Argentina's President Javier Mele is on an unofficial three-day visit to Madrid.
00:04
The libertarian firebrand is not meeting any government official.
00:09
Instead he's attending this Sunday a summit hosted by Prime Minister
00:13
Pedro Sánchez's political enemy the Vox party. The conference will bring
00:18
together far-right figures from across Europe trying to rally the party's base
00:23
ahead of European elections in June. And for more we're joined by our
00:27
correspondent Sarah Morris. Thanks for joining us Sarah. So who are we
00:33
expecting then at this conference as well as the big star of course Javier
00:37
Mele? Well Vox is describing them all as patriots. This is a big conference of
00:46
European patriots and they've also brought in big hitters from the far
00:52
right from Latin America. Now we're expecting by video conference we're
00:58
going to get an address later today from Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Moloney.
01:03
Also on a video conference will be our Hungary's MP Viktor Orban. But actually
01:10
in Madrid in person and addressing those delegates will be Marine Le Pen of
01:16
course from France's national rally. And we'll also have André Ventura who is
01:23
here in Madrid after of course becoming the third biggest force in the
01:30
Portuguese Parliament. So quite a meeting to galvanize Vox ahead of the
01:37
European elections. Vox of course in the July national elections in Spain
01:42
actually lost about 19 seats and the biggest booster to Vox is the arrival
01:50
on Friday already of the Argentinian president Javier Mele. He has as you
01:56
said no official meetings with the actual Prime Minister of Spain Pedro
02:02
Sánchez but he's met Santiago Abascal the head of Vox the far-right party in
02:08
Spain. He's met him several times already. I hope those video conference
02:14
appearances were announced as such ahead of time otherwise I imagine a lot of
02:18
the attendees will be quite disappointed. But perhaps you can just touch a little
02:21
bit more on what Mele is trying to achieve here with this visit. Sell books
02:26
but also galvanize his politics? Yes indeed in fact he's actually met with
02:36
Spanish businesses, business representatives. He met them at a
02:41
reception at the Argentinian Embassy. Now we did put those Spanish companies in a
02:45
bit of a predicament who should they send since it was not a visit that's
02:50
being approved by the actual Spanish government. But we saw about 16
02:57
business representatives, top delegates from Santander, the bank from Repsol,
03:05
the big oil company. We saw Maffrey the multinational insurance company. All of
03:11
them with interests in Argentina. There to hear what Mele had to say to them.
03:17
He describes himself as a man who's going to take an axe, even he calls it a
03:24
chainsaw to public spending and going to shake up capitalism. And those businesses
03:30
came out telling the Spanish media that he had promised them that he would make
03:36
Argentina a more safe place, for businesses after some of the previous
03:43
governments that have re-nationalized and changed the laws affecting
03:49
international investors there. So he definitely wants international investors
03:53
but he's also becoming a lightning rod for the European elections because Pedro
03:59
Sánchez, speaking in Catalonia, basically said that the international
04:04
right was rallying in Madrid and that was because of the feminism and the
04:09
workers rights and that they intended to beat them in the European elections. And
04:14
the far-left leader Yolanda DĂaz, head of SUMAR, she actually criticized
04:20
the businesses who had met with Mele saying that there were two things wrong
04:24
with it. One, there were no women in the photograph and she said the second one
04:28
there was no democratic decency. So these European elections in Spain are
04:33
certainly shaping up to be a very ideological fight between the left and
04:39
the right of the whole planet. Maybe some of the policies specifically, we also saw
04:45
the release of a conservative manifesto out of this conference. Yes we did, the
04:53
European Conservatives and Reformists group, they unveiled their manifesto and
04:57
that is the European grouping in the European Parliament where
05:02
Vox among other nationalist groups sit and basically they said that their
05:09
policies would include rejecting any unnecessary centralization, as they put
05:14
it, of power in Brussels, tightening up the borders and they said that only
05:20
genuine refugees should get through and they want more work with third countries
05:26
to stop illegal migrants as they see them getting in to the EU. They also
05:34
actually reject any creation of a European defence force, that's something
05:41
that some countries might like to see, particularly in the event of the
05:45
Ukrainian war. They also talk about revising the Green Deal and the terms of
05:53
the Pact. They have at least Vox certainly trying to tap into support
05:58
from farmers that are disgruntled by some of the environmental laws coming
06:04
out from the European Union and this group, the European Conservatives and
06:09
Reformists group, could be absolutely key, say some analysts, to Ursula von der
06:16
Leyen potentially securing a second term. Would she be willing is the big question
06:22
in Brussels and Strasbourg to work with some of these far-right groups that
06:27
form part of that group?
06:28
All right, Sarah Morris, thank you very much for that.
06:31
Our correspondent there in Madrid.
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