Pope Leo XIV's visit to Argentina is set to become a showdown with 'hyper-capitalist' President Javier Milei. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Start of the trip

Pope Leo XIV arrives in Argentina on Monday, 9 November. It is part of his three-day tour of three South American countries: the trip began in Uruguay on Friday and will finish with six days in Peru. It is the first papal visit to Argentina since John Paul II in 1987. His predecessor, Argentine Pope Francis, never returned during his papacy.

Milei's criticism

Milei is a far-right libertarian economist who campaigned with a chainsaw as the symbol of his promised spending cuts. In 2020, he called Francis an 'imbecile' and 'the representative of the Evil One on Earth', accusing him of promoting communism and calling social justice theft. Milei claims to have apologised when he met Francis in the Vatican in February 2024.

Disability funding

The first day of the pope's visit will begin at the Cottolengo Don Orione, a Catholic-run home for people with disabilities in Claypole, about 26km from Buenos Aires. It houses about 400 residents with disabilities. However, Milei's government has made wide-ranging cuts to disability funding. The facility's coordinator, Fernando Montero, said: '[The government] cut off the supply of medications, special foods and diapers. They haven't delivered any since last November. The matter is in court.' He said the pope and Milei 'have completely opposing ideologies', arguing that the pope teaches that a person's worth is not measured by whether they are productive, whereas Milei is a 'hyper-capitalist' who believes only 'those who compete the most should be rewarded'.

Economic situation

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed public spending. The government says this was needed to curb inflation. However, the cost was high. The thinktank Mate estimates that retirees on the minimum pension (63% of the total) have lost about 30% of their purchasing power. Last Wednesday at the weekly retirees' march outside Congress, a man held up a cardboard sign reading, 'Save us Pope Leo XIV – Milei is killing us.'

Artificial intelligence and labour rights

The differences between the pope and the president go beyond typical social issues. In May, Leo XIV called for 'disarming' artificial intelligence, while Milei has said he would not regulate AI technology and has instead presented bills to build datacentres across the country and to grant legal status to 'no-human corporations'. Federico Sturzenegger, a minister in charge of state cuts, says he has used AI to draft legislation. Milagros Miceli, a sociologist and computer scientist who leads the Critical AI Lab in Berlin, said the 'contradiction' between the two is 'pretty evident'. She welcomed Leo's visit, celebrating how the 'powerful figure' of the pope intends to put 'human beings at the centre by stripping these technologies of the values that are presented to us as taking precedence over humanity.' Juan Grabois, a left-wing Peronist deputy and social leader who served in the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said: 'The idea of absolute deregulation is at the heart of the president's agenda, and the replacement of the human element with these forms of algorithmic power has clearly also become a policy priority for the government.'

Church-state conflict

Disability funding has been a flashpoint between church and state. As Milei has clashed with Congress over a funding law that remains in limbo, Argentina's conference of bishops wrote to the health minister, Mario Lugones, on 1 April, denouncing 'the serious situation facing numerous institutions dedicated to the care and support of people with disabilities in our country'. The ministry has met the bishops twice since, in April and again on 5 October, but without resolving the impasse. The government is trying to downplay potential tensions. 'There's no way the pope is going to come here to comment on local politics,' Sandra Pettovello, the minister overseeing social policy, said recently. Amnesty International, meanwhile, has written to the pope about Argentina, warning of its 'concern about government decisions that affect the exercise of fundamental rights'.

Itinerary

Milei will receive the pope at the airport on Sunday. From the disability home, the pope will go on to Buenos Aires and meet business and union leaders; then on Tuesday he will celebrate Mass at the grounds of FAdeA, the state-owned military aircraft factory in Córdoba, whose workers have protested against Milei's cuts. Juan Cruz Esquivel, director of Buenos Aires University's Barometer of Religions and Beliefs, says the itinerary speaks for itself: 'I don't want to speculate [about what the pope will say], but clearly any mention of defending domestic production, labour, disability or social justice in the pope's rhetoric naturally clashes with the ideology that Milei's government has been promoting.' Mariano Oberlin, a Catholic priest in an impoverished neighbourhood of Córdoba, expects the clash to play out diplomatically.