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Fachada rosada de una casa de gobierno con banderas blancas y amarillas y multitud tras vallas
Imagen alusiva de la fachada de una casa de gobierno con banderas vaticanas y público tras las vallas. · Imagen generada por EPM

Milei welcomed Leo XIV at the Casa Rosada

Javier Milei welcomed Leo XIV at the Casa Rosada in the first papal visit to Argentina in 39 years.

--- The context --- The visit of Leo XIV to Argentina ended 39 years without a papal presence in the country, since the last one led by John Paul II in 1987. The meeting at the Casa Rosada was the first institutional act of a Latin American tour that began in Uruguay and brought together state protocol, religious gestures and a shared public agenda between President Javier Milei and the Pontiff. --- The facts --- The Pope landed at the Aeroparque Military Base a few minutes past 16:30, arriving from Uruguay, where he was received by President Milei, ecclesiastical authorities and a large group of grenadiers, several of them members of the Fanfarria del Alto Perú, who played the Argentine national anthem. After the honor ceremony, both walked along the red carpet and greeted the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, who thanked the Pontiff for his visit, representatives of the Church and a group of faithful. At the esplanade, a group of mounted grenadiers awaited him. The president stepped forward to receive him at the main entrance and they walked together to the Salón Blanco, where the official photo and the formal exchange took place. Afterwards, in the Galería de los Vitrales, Leo XIV greeted the members of the Cabinet one by one, in addition to adviser Santiago Caputo, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, and the head of the ruling bloc in the Senate, Patricia Bullrich. Javier and Karina Milei then moved to the presidential office with the Pope for a bilateral meeting that lasted about 40 minutes, the most private moment of the agenda, with no ministers or other officials present. --- The positions --- The presence of Patricia Bullrich at the greeting was read as a gesture of goodwill by the libertarian leadership, which maintains strong discomfort with her over recent statements in which she hinted at her desire to compete for the Presidency in 2027. During the private audience, the President gave the Pontiff a silver medallion with gold relief, in a wooden box, with the Argentine national coat of arms on one side and the Vatican emblem on the other, together with the date of the visit and the name of Leo XIV. He also gave him an aspergillum of ebony and silver, engraved with an image of the Virgin of Luján, patroness of Argentina. --- What remains unknown --- The source does not detail the topics discussed in the 40-minute bilateral meeting, held behind closed doors and with no officials present. Nor does it specify the content of the parallel audience held by Santilli, Quirno and Pettovello with the Vatican representatives, so the concrete scope of what was treated at both tables is not yet publicly known. --- Unanswered questions --- What topics occupied the private conversation between Milei and Leo XIV in the presidential office? What was discussed in the parallel audience between the Argentine ministers and the Vatican representatives? How will the bond continue after the reunion planned for Monday at the mass at the Monumento de los Españoles, in Palermo? --- EPM analysis --- The security operation ordered the scene from early on. At around 14:00, the Federal Police fenced the area and cleared the 200-meter perimeter around Balcarce 50, while subway circulation near Plaza de Mayo was restricted. A crowd of about 200 people stood behind the fences, with Vatican flags alongside those of Argentina and the City of Buenos Aires, under a clear sky and a temperature close to 20 degrees. Some 70 Casa Militar troops worked alongside the Federal Police and the papal guard. On June 7, 2025, both spoke alone for 45 minutes at the Pontifical Library and the Pope then confirmed his visit. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the value of this visit is measured by the shared institutional gesture and by the capacity to sustain a calm dialogue between the State and the Church, with the social agenda as the backdrop of each public act carried out during this day. The private meeting, the full greeting to the Cabinet and the delivery of the keys to the City composed a day of mutual recognition. What both leaders build from that dialogue will define whether the meeting remains a ceremony or becomes a working relationship with concrete effects for Argentine society as a whole.
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