An Eiffel Tower topped with an Argentinian flag, Javier Milei raising his fist in the air, and a lion, one of the symbols he cultivates. In an AI-generated video, the Argentine president takes the stage to announce his arrival in Paris, Wednesday September 30, on the occasion of “Argentina Week”. A seduction operation in the image of the far-right leader, who intends to take advantage of this economic forum to attract European investors.
For three days, Javier Milei must praise the opportunities offered by his country to political and economic leaders. Surrounded by ministers, bosses and around ten governors, on Thursday, October 1, he will make a speech at the OECD, followed by a private interview with Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée.
Behind this attempt at seduction, the Argentine leader is seeking to attract foreign capital to revive growth which is suffering the repercussions of three years of austerity policy. But he also needs to convince in his own country, where poverty is on the rise again. It affects 32.3% of the population in the first half of 2026, compared to 28.2% six months earlier, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Indec).
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After New York in March, Paris hosts the second edition of “Argentina Week”. And France is not an insignificant choice: it is the seventh largest investor in Argentina, with some 250 French subsidiaries employing around 53,000 people.
In the French capital, the visit does not go unnoticed. The Assembly of Argentine Citizens in France (ACAF) is calling for a rally on Wednesday in front of the Argentine embassy to denounce the president’s visit. A petition asking the City of Paris to declare Javier Milei persona non grata has, for its part, collected more than 3,500 signatures.
For Jean-Jacques Kourliandsky, director of the Latin America Observatory of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and signatory of this petition, Javier Milei’s trip illustrates the contradictions of the Argentine president, who came to Paris to “push open doors that still remain open to him in Europe”.
France 24: What is Javier Milei looking for in Paris, and in what domestic economic context does this visit take place?
Jean-Jacques Kourliandsky : Javier Milei comes to look for money and potential investors to create jobs, while the social situation in Argentina has deteriorated due to the choices he has made to carry out his new economic policy. He chose to destroy the national industrial fabric to favor only exporting sectors that bring in money, such as minerals or agriculture.
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At the same time, by slashing all public investment credits to build roads, hospitals or schools, the public works sector, which creates jobs, also finds itself devastated. Since there is no more money in Argentina, Javier Milei must find it elsewhere.
Why is France among his interlocutors, when Javier Milei has become angry with many traditional partners?
Javier Milei is caught in his own contradictions. He closed the door to Spain on his own for ideological reasons, notably by attacking Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez regarding an alleged corruption affair. He also closed the door to the United Kingdom by relaunching the Falklands issue. For equally ideological reasons, he maintains the same attitude with Lula’s Brazil.
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He is therefore seeking to push open doors that still remain open to him in Europe, such as Italy, Germany or France. Even if Emmanuel Macron is not a privileged ideological partner, he remains “friendly” in Milei’s eyes because he is neither socialist nor statist. There are French companies established in Argentina – particularly for the exploitation of lithium and oil – and he hopes to convince others, even if he paradoxically declined the invitation to the Medef summer school, although a priori, these are precisely the partners he was looking for as a priority.
Does the recent resignation of Santiago Muzio from his position as director of the Maison de l’Argentina at the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris show that Buenos Aires is worried about its reputation and image abroad?
Yes, the character in question is very far right, but he was entirely in line with the friends and collaborators sought by the Argentine president. It provoked a lot of rejection and refusal, which was not the best preparation for the arrival of the Argentine president in Paris.
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He most likely called him back. I am not in on the secrets of the Argentine president, but what we can think is that it was withdrawn to avoid demonstrations, particularly from the Argentine community who live in Paris or Île-de-France. This allowed him to avoid this type of problem, which could effectively have erased or put into the background the objective of his trip to Paris: to present the image of an Argentina that is well governed, peaceful and open to foreign investors.
Faced with protests and calls to declare it persona non gratahow does Milei handle this international rejection?
This rejection of Javier Milei remains relative. It benefits from the support of the United States, the world’s leading economic, commercial and military power. He also has the support of a majority of Latin American governments aligned with the radical right or the far right. Only Brazil and Mexico are not among its supporters.
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In reality, Milei sorts her interlocutors. He ignores the countries whose heads of state he does not wish to meet, putting his ideological priorities ahead of his economic and commercial canvassing, while highlighting his affinities with the leaders of his camp, in Latin America, the United States and Europe.
Is Argentina at risk of going through a new major crisis?
The country is in an extremely difficult situation. When you know Argentina, you know that everything can change from one moment to the next, in a way that is all the more violent because the Argentines no longer have a point of reference. There is no real organized opposition. On the contrary, there have been disappointments in past years with the other forces that are in opposition today.
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Milei appeared like Santa Claus, who came from civil society: university professor, essayist, he speaks well, he earned money for himself, to earn money for others. It was born from this kind of magic that is collapsing.
There can therefore indeed be in Argentina, at any time, a violent crisis like it experienced between 2000 and 2002. Javier Milei senses it coming.
