President Javier Milei declared in a closing speech to the CPAC summit in Hungary on Saturday that “Argentina is in a position to guarantee Europe’s energy security.”
The remarks came after the head of state had earlier met with his ally, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the far-right leader who is facing an election later this year and is known for his fierce anti-immigration stance.
“We are experiencing a gold rush in energy investment; imagine that by 2030 we will be exporting more than US$30 billion per year. Europe sought energy independence for years; we offer something better: a reliable partner, with enormous reserves and a government that honours its contracts,” Milei told attendees at the right-wing summit in Budapest.
In a typically fiery speech, Milei had earlier talked up a possible intervention in Cuba by US President Donald Trump. In a nod to his European audience, he also attacked Spain’s left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
“What can be said about Cuba, which after almost 70 years of a supposed childish revolution that only mattered to the Castro family left a population plunged into misery, and this week they had to announce a change of economic model?,” Milei said in his closing speech.
“Surely, before mid-year, under the leadership of that great man Donald Trump, we will probably see a free Cuba,” he concluded.
In the speech, he again targeted Spain’s PM Sánchez, whom he called a “tyrant in the making.”
“When power separates itself from the responsibility of representation, it can turn into tyranny very quickly. In fact, in the speech just now, my dear friend [and leader of the far-right Spanish party Vox] Santiago Abascal mentioned the tyrant in the making that you have in Spain,” Milei said.
Despite recent struggles to lower inflation below two percent, Milei set a new objective in his speech and said he aims to eliminate inflation completely by the end of his term in 2027.
“Probably by the end of our term, in this first term, we will have completely exterminated it,” he said.
During his speech to the CPAC gathering, Hungarian PM Orban showered Milei with praise, describing him as “a global star of Western values.”
“It is the first time in the history of our nations that an Argentine President has visited Hungary. We are very happy; he arrives at a very important moment,” said the far-right leader.
Milei – who earlier in the day backed Orban’s stance on immigration – responded in kind, telling the Hungarian leader that he “has our respect and admiration.”
Orban, who is known for his anti-immigration stances and crackdown on asylum seekers and migrants, is one of the rare European Union leaders to enjoy warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has often resisted EU initiatives to support Ukraine.
The duo had met earlier in the day at the Sandar Palace, the seat of Hungarian government.
Milei reportedly told the Hungarian premier in advance of Saturday’s conference at the far-right CPAC gathering he would speak about migrants and support his position.
“When immigration does not culturally adapt to the place it goes to, it stops being immigration and becomes an invasion,” Milei told the prime minister during his visit to Budapest, local media reported.
The Hungarian prime minister is a staunch opponent of immigration, which he has described as “poison.”
Orbán published a message this Saturday after the meeting he held with Milei. “It is always a pleasure to see you, President,” he wrote.
Milei was accompanied to the meeting by his sister and Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei and Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno.
Earlier, he had met with Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok at the Sándor Palace.
Milei was received by a military formation and walked along a red carpet alongside Sulyok. The Hungarian president gave him a small statue of a lion as a gift. “Wonderful. I love it,” Milei responded upon reception.
– TIMES/PERFIL/NA
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