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Palacio institucional argentino de fachada rosada al atardecer, con banderas argentinas y guardia protocolar
Palacio institucional argentino al atardecer, con banderas y ambiente protocolar. · Imagen generada por EPM

Milei Invites Whole Political Class to Receive Leo XIV in Buenos Aires

Javier Milei invited Vice President Victoria Villarruel, the 23 governors and all national legislators to the official reception for Leo XIV at the Palacio…

--- The context --- The visit of Leo XIV to Argentina has been marked by a political gesture that, according to the published information, brought deep satisfaction at the Vatican. President Javier Milei decided to broaden the invitation list for the official reception in honor of the Pope at the Palacio Libertad, an event that in the early protocol talks between the Casa Rosada and the Vatican had a narrower list of guests. In that initial stage, Vice President Victoria Villarruel and most deputies and senators did not appear as guests at the presidential reception. In that context, the vice president had requested an audience with Leo XIV at the Nunciature in Buenos Aires, which the Vatican had not ruled out, while the published information attributes to the Casa Rosada a media strategy aimed at sidelining the vice president over her differences with Milei. --- The facts --- Milei invited Villarruel, the Buenos Aires city government chief, the 23 governors and all national legislators to the official reception for Leo XIV at the Palacio Libertad. The reception will take place in the evening of November 8 and will allow the Pope to dialogue with the entire Argentine political class in a single institutional setting. According to the published information, Milei took up the mandate of Leo XIV to promote a united society beyond political and ideological differences, a legacy attributed to Francis. Despite his confrontation with Villarruel, the president ordered the invitation to be sent to the Presidency of the Senate, the institutional office held by the vice president. --- The positions --- From the reading gathered in the published information, the gesture was seen at the Vatican as a sign of openness and institutional unity. The reception will gather national, provincial and legislative authorities around the papal visit, above the political and ideological differences that run through the Argentine leadership. The agenda of Leo XIV combines intense pastoral activity with an official visit to the Casa Rosada and a protocol event at the Palacio Libertad. In his apostolic exhortation, the Pope argues that economic rules can prove effective for growth without being so for integral human development, and he holds that growing wealth with inequity creates new forms of poverty, while also defending education as a high expression of charity and the dignity of the weakest persons. --- What remains unknown --- The papal agenda includes a visit to the Cottolengo Don Orione, Masses in Palermo, Luján and the city of Córdoba, meetings with union leaders, business leaders and social leaders, and a Prayer Vigil with young people at the Monumento a los Españoles. The address Milei will deliver at the Palacio Libertad is also awaited, where the different views on the role of the State, education, poverty and adjustment plans could be on display. Leo XIV will first stop in Uruguay and will then arrive at Aeroparque, in Buenos Aires, aboard an Aerolíneas Argentinas plane coming from Montevideo. Chancellor Pablo Quirno denied that there had been a formal request for Milei to board the plane upon the arrival of the Holy Father, and according to the published information the president will receive him at the foot of the plane. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the broad invitation to the entire political class mark a lasting change in the relationship between Milei and Villarruel? What weight will the message of unity carry in the presidential address at the Palacio Libertad? How will the views of the Pope and the president on poverty, education and the role of the State dialogue with each other during the visit? --- EPM analysis --- The decision to open the reception to governors, legislators and the vice president herself turns a protocol ceremony into a scene of complete institutional representation. The gesture does not erase the internal differences of the ruling coalition, but it subordinates them, at least for one day, to an image of a united country facing a historic visit that Francis had dreamed of again and again. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the broad invitation organizes the papal visit around institutional unity and gives Argentina a collective image that rises above the ruling coalition's internal disputes. The gesture responds to the spirit of a united society that the visit itself seeks to promote and places the Palacio Libertad reception as the central political moment of the agenda. Its true scope will be measured afterward, when the political leadership must sustain in daily practice the same willingness to meet that the reception will stage before the Pope and before the whole country in November.
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