Argentine leader Milei on mission to beef up economy during Paris visit

Milei began his four-day visit to France on Wednesday by opening Argentina Week, an event aimed at promoting investment opportunities in his country, which runs until 2 October.

A libertarian who calls himself an "anarcho-capitalist", Milei will deliver a speech on Thursday at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, before a meeting with Macron.

On the agenda is his "new Argentina" policy, which declares the country open to foreign capital, promising tax benefits over 30 years for projects involving investment of more than €200 million.

Argentina is keen to show its openness to the mining and oil industries in particular, and has modified glacier protection laws to facilitate the exploitation of copper, gold and lithium reserves.

Milei arrived in France with a delegation that includes his economy and deregulation ministers, Luis Caputo and Federico Struznegger, as well as a dozen governors, including from the mining province of the Andes.

He is also accompanied by the head of Argentina's national oil company YPF and the president of the powerful employers' association of the agro-industry.

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Hunt for investors

France is the 7th largest investor in Argentina, with a more than 63 percent rise in projects in 2024 – a trend Milei is seeking to accelerate. 

Among the French business leaders attending the investment forum are Patrick Pouyanné, chief of energy giant Total, as well as the CEOs of the mining group Eramet and the agri-food company Danone.

This quest for investors comes against a backdrop of economic slowdown in Argentina, which has seen a 0.6 percent drop in GDP in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous three-month stretch.

Since coming to power in 2023 and taking an axe to government spending, Milei has overseen a budget surplus and tamed triple-digit inflation, bringing it down to an annual rate of 35 percent.

But three years of austerity have sapped the industrial sector, employment and consumption in Latin America's third largest economy.

The manufacturing and retail sectors have haemorrhaged jobs due to falling purchasing power and Milei's decision to open Argentina to foreign competition, leading to a surge in imports.

Some 30,000 companies have closed since he took office, and unemployment rose to 7.9 percent in the second quarter of this year – the highest level since 2021.

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Europe 'slave to woke thinking'

"Milei needs to show that the world opens its door to the new Argentina that he embodies," political scientist Federico Zapata told French news agency AFP.

His need to capture or announce new investments "even if they will hardly have an impact from here [till] the presidential election in October 2027 [will at] least [help] his narrative," he added. 

Although Milei appears confident of his re-election, his popularity has dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of his presidency, with a disapproval rating of around 55-60 percent according to polls.

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The Argentine president is due to receive an award on Friday from the Paris Economic Forum "for the coherence and breadth of the economic programme he has brought as president", according to a statement.

However, several French unions affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists have condemned his visit, calling it "an insult to press freedom" due to Milei's repeated attacks on the media.

Ahead of his trip, he gave a scathing description of Europe in an interview with French broadcaster LCI, saying the continent was being dragged down by a "perverse welfare state" and was a "slave" to excessive regulation, immigration and "woke" thinking.

Milei also argued that Europeans dislike his ally United States President Donald Trump because he tells the "truth about how it is sinking".

"If people do not wake up to this reality, Europe will cease to be what it once represented for the West," he said.

Despite his criticism of Europe, the Argentine leader has praised his country's ties with France and said he has "an excellent relationship" with Macron.

(with AFP)