After a very symbolic tribute to the victims, particularly French, of the Argentine military dictatorship, the French head of state joined the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, where he was welcomed by his counterpart, accused of revisionism on this dark page of the history of the Latin American country.
A second tête-à-tête after dinner the day before, at the start of this six-day tour of Latin America.
“We are going to talk about our commercial interests, our trade, the defense of our agriculture and our farmers,” Emmanuel Macron said on social networks on Saturday on the plane that was taking him to Argentina.
“We don't always think the same thing on many subjects,” he added, “but it's very useful to exchange ideas to prepare” for the G20, in which the two men will participate on Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro. .
Mercosur in the viewfinder
The visit takes place in a particular context.
In France, supported by a political class united in rare unanimity, farmers are mobilizing against the free trade treaty that the European Commission, pushed by several countries such as Germany and Spain, hopes to sign by the end of the year with Mercosur, the regional bloc that includes Argentina and Brazil.
They fear a surge of Latin American meat, and warn against unfair competition from products not subject to the strict environmental and health standards in force in Europe.
In Buenos Aires then in Rio, Emmanuel Macron will be the spokesperson for this refusal, even if it is mainly the other Europeans that he must convince not to ignore the French opposition. He insists that Paris rejects this text “as is”, demanding that it integrates respect for these standards and also the Paris agreement on the climate.
However, Javier Milei is an admirer of Donald Trump, a climate skeptic like the Republican who has just made a thunderous comeback by winning the American presidential election.
Argentina has just withdrawn its delegation from the COP29 climate negotiations in Baku and speculation is rife about its possible exit from the Paris agreement – a move that Donald Trump made during his first term.
Emmanuel Macron therefore hoped, according to his entourage, to “connect” the Argentine president to the “international consensus” and the “priorities of the G20”, particularly in terms of the fight against global warming.
“We will not forget you”
On Sunday, the French head of state, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, began the day with his homage in the Santa Cruz church, a place of memory of the resistance against the dictatorship (1976-1983).
“We have not forgotten you,” he told victims’ relatives. In December 1977, several founding members of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who were demanding information about their missing loved ones, were arrested, tortured and murdered after meeting in this church.
Among the victims were French nuns Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon, who were kidnapped and then killed by the dictatorship. In all, at least 22 French people were listed among the dead or missing from this period.
“I thank you for your presence,” “especially at this moment,” one of the victims’ relatives told the French president on Sunday. Another asked him “that political and economic interests should not make us forget either the ideal or […] the hope of doing justice.
Javier Milei, in power for eleven months, and even more so his vice-president Victoria Villaruel, from a military family, are accused of revisionism by human rights organizations. They do not hesitate to revisit the toll of the military junta: while that, generally accepted, of human rights organizations reports 30,000 deaths, Javier Milei mentions fewer than 9,000 victims.
