Miley travels to Davos to present his superlative economics experience at the World Economic Forum

On Monday, Javier Miley began his first official trip abroad since assuming the presidency of Argentina on December 10. The far right will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) to present its government's program and hopes to meet world leaders. As of Monday, Casa Rosada had only confirmed a meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund, which the South American country granted a week ago…

On Monday, Javier Miley began his first official trip abroad since assuming the presidency of Argentina on December 10. The far right will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) to present its government's program and hopes to meet world leaders. As of Monday, Casa Rosada had only confirmed a meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund, which a week ago granted the South American country a $4.7 billion disbursement to settle debts with the same organization. The President will attend with an important government delegation to the meeting that brings together leaders, officials and businessmen from all over the world in January of each year in this city located in the Alps.

Miley took off on Monday at 7 p.m. local time on a commercial flight that will land in Frankfurt, Germany. The president will arrive in Davos on Tuesday after another plane trip and a road trip. On Wednesday, he will speak at the summit with Forum CEO Klaus Schwab. Miley will present his government's program, which began its implementation last month, which includes a brutal amendment and more than a thousand measures to liberalize the economy and reform the Argentine state. Some regulatory changes and eliminations imposed by decree are being questioned in the courts; Other measures must pass through Congress, which has already begun discussing the package: there are sectors of the opposition prepared to support the plan, but none of them will approve it without changes as the government intends.

Miley's extreme liberal experiment in Argentina raises expectations at the summit, where this year some issues that cause greater uncertainty about the economic outlook will be discussed, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine or the superiority of generative artificial intelligence. “The forces realize that we have returned to embracing the ideas of freedom and respect for the capitalist system,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Monday at his daily press conference from Casa Rosada. Although the Argentine delegation planned to hold meetings with representatives of banks, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies and other companies, as well as with some state secretaries and ministers, the government had not confirmed any meeting of Milley with foreign leaders as of Monday evening.

On his agenda, there is only a meeting with Georgieva. With Miley's arrival at Casa Rosada, Argentina opened a new phase of relations with the Fund, which highlighted the far-right's “ambitious adaptation plan.” The International Monetary Fund visited Argentina last week and reached a technical agreement with the country to give it a new boost of $4.7 billion that must be approved by its board and which will depend on the “continuous and lasting implementation” of the new government’s guidelines. Argentinian. These funds are not a new loan, but are consistent with payments that the Fund had scheduled with Argentina between December of last year and the first quarter of 2024. The country will use these payments to pay off its debt with the organization amounting to 44 thousand million dollars. of dollars.

The far right will be accompanied at the World Economic Forum by an important government delegation that includes Foreign Minister Diana Mondino; Economy Minister Luis Caputo or Chief of Staff Nicolas Bossi. This is the first time in six years that the President of Argentina will travel to Switzerland to participate in the summit, which is held this year from January 15 to 19 and welcomes delegations from more than 100 countries, international organizations and 1,000 companies, among other civil institutions. Community leaders, experts and entrepreneurs. In the last years of the government of conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and during the term of Peronist Alberto Fernandez (2019-2023), other Cabinet officials went to Switzerland – in 2021 Fernandez participated, but almost due to the coronavirus pandemic -19.

Barbecue at Quinta de Olivos

Miley and his team met on Sunday at the presidential residence in the town of Olivos for a cabinet meeting before the trip to Davos. Miley's meetings with his government are scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Thursday at Casa Rosada, the seat of the executive branch, in central Buenos Aires. But this week was organized this way because the president will be absent until Friday morning. The two-hour meeting was followed by a “Roman-style” barbecue where “everyone pays their turn,” according to Milley in an interview. He said: “I take care of preparing the house, then I give the order and there are people who honor the rest.”

“One of the topics of the day was to review the balance we achieved in the first month of government and the 1,040 measures we have strengthened in these days of administration,” Adorni said on Monday of the meeting, concluding: “We are satisfied that this residence is used for business again.”

The President moved into the official residence shortly before completing a month in office. Until then, the president had been living in a four-star hotel suite in the Argentine capital, a residence that was also the center of operations for his party, Advanced Liberty, during the election campaign. The move was delayed in part due to the construction of cages for the four mastiffs, according to the government. The dogs are still housed at the doggie daycare. “We are progressing with the construction of dog kennels. Soon my little ones will come to live at Quinta de Olivos,” Miley said in a message on social media.

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