Argentina’s Javier Milei travels to Davos to present his ultraliberal experiment at the World Economic Forum

On Monday, Javier Milei began his first official trip abroad since assuming the presidency of Argentina on December 10. The far-right leader will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) to present his government program and hopes to meet with world leaders. As of Monday, the Casa Rosada — Argentina’s seat of government — had only confirmed the Milei will be meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which unlocked $4.7 billion in funds for Argentina last week.

Milei 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 flight and a road trip. On Wednesday, he will speak at the summit together with the World Economic Forum’s former chairman, Klaus Schwab. Milei will present his government program, which he began to implement last month. It includes severe cuts to the public sector and more than a thousand measures to deregulate the economy and modify the Argentine state. Some of the regulatory changes and repeals were imposed by a decree that is being questioned in the courts. Other measures will have to go through Congress, which has begun to debate the package. Some sectors of the opposition are willing to support the plan, but none will approve it without changes, as the government wants.

Milei’s ultraliberal experiment in Argentina has raised expectations at the summit, which will discuss issues triggering economic uncertainty, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the rise of generative artificial intelligence. “World powers understand that we have returned to embrace the ideas of freedom and respect for the capitalist system,” said the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, on Monday. Although the Argentine delegation has planned meetings with representatives of banks, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies and other companies, as well as with some secretaries of state and ministers, the government has not confirmed if Milei will be meeting with any foreign leaders.

On his agenda, there is only his meeting with Georgieva. With Milei’s arrival at the Casa Rosada, Argentina entered a new stage of relations with the IMF, which celebrated the far-right leader’s “ambitious stabilization plan.” The IMF visited Argentina last week, and reached a technical agreement to unlock $4.7 billion from the loan program, a decision that must be endorsed by its board and will depend on a “continuous and lasting implementation” of the fiscal adjustment announced by the new government of Argentina in mid-December. The money does not represent a new loan, but is rather part of pending disbursements that the IMF and Argentina had agreed to, to be made effective between December 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. Argentina will use the funds to continue to pay off its $44 billion debt with the multilateral organization.

Milei will attend the World Economic Forum with a government delegation that includes Foreign Affairs Minister Diana Mondino, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and Chief of the Cabinet Nicolás Posse. It is the first time in six years that a president of Argentina has traveled to Switzerland to participate in the summit, which will be held between January 15 and 19 and will welcome delegations from more than 100 countries, as well as international organizations, companies, civil society leaders, experts and entrepreneurs. In previous years, other Cabinet officials — not the president — traveled to Switzerland for the forum (in 2021, former president Alberto Fernández took part in the summit held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic).

Barbecue at Quinta de Olivos

Milei and his team met on Sunday at the presidential residence, in the town of Olivos, to hold a Cabinet meeting prior to the president’s trip to Davos. Milei typically meets with his Cabinet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Casa Rosada, in the center of Buenos Aires, but this week it was organized in Olivos because the president will be absent until Friday morning.

The president moved into the official residence shortly before completing a month in office. Until then, Milei had been living in the suite of a four-star hotel in the Argentine capital, which was also his party’s center of operations during the electoral campaign. The move was delayed in part because kennels needed to be built for Milei’s four mastiffs, according to the government. The dogs still remain in a dog daycare. “We are moving forward with the building of the kennels. Soon my little children will come to live at Quinta de Olivos,” Milei said in a social media message.

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