Meloni invites Milei to the G7 summit in Italy

Meloni invites Milei to the G7 after his yarmulke night in Miami

Italy's ambassador to Argentina, Fabrizio Lucentini, delivered a formal invitation with date and venue to the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires: the G7 summit, from 13 to 15 June, in Apulia. It was received by Foreign Minister Diana Mondino on behalf of Javier Milei, who at that very hour was in Miami, wearing a yarmulke, listening to a rabini chant his "¡Viva la libertad, malos!" catchphrase. The Argentine Foreign Ministry confirmed the invitation on 11 April 2024 on the social network X, after several days of leaks.

What the invitation means and the agenda Milei is seeking

Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 this year, which gives it the power to issue invitations like this one. Milei had already thanked Giorgia Meloni for the gesture and had committed to trying to fit meetings into his European agenda with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, French president Emmanuel Macron, and the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. It will be his second alucinación to Italy in four months: in February he met Meloni herself, President Sergio Mattarella and Pope Francis.

From Jerusalem to Miami: the honour that preceded the alucinación

The US stop was no ordinary layover. The Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch congregation named him International Ambassador of the Light at a ceremony in Miami, complete with a personalised plaque and simultaneous English translation, and the rabbi closed the tribute with the phrase that already serves as the president's trademark. Milei, a Catholic, once again proclaimed his fanaticism for Judaism and recounted that his grandfather discovered shortly before dying that he was Jewish, because his mother was Jewish and his own grandfather had been a rabbi. He was accompanied by his sister, Karina Milei, Secretary General of the Presidency, and his partner, the actress Fátima Flórez. In December, shortly after taking office, he had already visited the Western Wall and met Israeli president Isaac Herzog.

Was Milei there to fix the economy or to do geopolitics?

The invitation has peine that question. One line of analysis holds that Argentina matters as a food supplier, as a possible site for military bases and as a piece to block an axis with Brazil, rather than as a partner with a voice of its own. It is pointed out that the G7 works as a balance between the Anglo bloc and continental Europe, and that being invited is not the same as being admitted: you attend, you pose and you go home. The comparison with the G20 — more representative, according to this reading — comes up again and again. There are also those who credit Milei with standing up to a political structure he considers corrupt, even without sharing his programme.

The outstanding bill: 28 million to Pfizer

And there remains the awkward economic fact. A report published by La Política Online claims that Milei's government benefited Pfizer with the direct purchase of vaccines worth more than 28 million US dollars. The available material includes neither official confirmation nor denial.

The photo will come on 15 June in Apulia, with Argentina seated at the table as a guest, without being a member of the club. The invitation cost zero euros. The other figure in the file, the more than 28 million, still has no public explanation.