Javier Milei and Pope Francis.EFE
Javier Milei has begun to bury differences on his path to becoming Argentina’s head of state. The right-wing extremists received a call this Tuesday from Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church. Milei, who called the pope “the representative of evil on earth” during his rise to television fame and accused him during the presidential campaign of “standing on the side of bloody dictatorships,” invited him to visit the country next year.
According to reconstructions by the newspaper La Nación, the conversation was “pleasant” and lasted about eight minutes. Milei and Francisco spoke about poverty, which affects four out of ten people in Argentina, and about the president-elect’s social plans.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 86, was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and was cardinal of the Argentine capital from 2001 to 2013, when he was made pope. Francis never visited Argentina during the decade of his pontificate, but his every word had an impact on Argentine politics.
Francisco was one of the star protagonists of the presidential debates of this election campaign, when the Peronist and minister Sergio Massa reminded Milei of his insults towards the Pope: “Argentina has millions of faithful Catholics and you have insulted the head of the Church,” said Massa, who this Sunday was defeated by Milei in the second round. “I would like you to use these 45 seconds to ask for forgiveness from the Pope, the most important Argentine in history.” The right-wing economist replied: “My statements were made in a context when I was not yet in politics. I have no problem repeating that I’m sorry.”
Milei lied in this debate on October 1st before the first round. Two weeks earlier, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, he had accused the pope of having “an affinity with the murderous communists” of Cuba and Venezuela. “He is on the side of bloody dictatorships,” he accused. It was not his last complaint against the head of the Catholic Church.
On Wednesday, October 18, Milei, who ended his first-round campaign after being the candidate with the most votes in the primary, spoke to a packed stadium. The first speaker of the evening was one of his ideological references, the economist Alberto Benegas Lynch, who, to applause, called for “suspending diplomatic relations with the Vatican as long as the totalitarian spirit reigns in the mind.” The stadium responded with cries of “freedom.” and applause, but Milei later responded that 83-year-old Benegas Lynch’s statements were a “personal idea.”
Milei has started wearing the suit of the nation’s president. This Tuesday morning he visited the outgoing president, the Peronist Alberto Fernández, at the official residence in the north of Buenos Aires. Around noon, while recording a television interview, the Pope’s call came. Both meetings were described as “respectful” and “institutional.”