Argentine President Javier Milei told the UK Telegraph on Monday that he would very much like to meet with Reform UK leader and Brexit champion Nigel Farage. The appreciation appears to be mutual, as Farage has praised Milei’s successful efforts to trim the bloated Argentine socialist state.
The Telegraph was in the midst of a wide-ranging interview with Milei, who wants to rebuild Argentina’s relationship with Britain and pay a personal visit to the UK in the spring, when the question of meeting with UK leaders came up.
Milei was blasé about talking to the current British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer (“Yes, why not?” he said) but erupted with volcanic enthusiasm when asked if he wanted to sit down with Farage.
“¡ABSOLUTAMENTE!” Milei explained. His interpreter hilariously chose to translate the outburst to “Abso-bloody-lutely!” for the benefit of his British interviewers.
Milei said Brexit was a “very interesting vision” and he believed he would “learn a lot” from discussing it with Farage.
Starmer would probably have to wait for the third opening in Milei’s schedule, because he was also very enthusiastic about meeting “Michael FELIPE!” by whom he meant Michael Philip Jagger, better known as Mick Jagger. Milei is such a huge fan of the Rolling Stones that he said he stopped singing in a Stones cover band because he “no longer wanted to foul the music that Jagger and Keith Richards made.”
Actually, Starmer might have to wait for the fourth place in line to meet with Milei if Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni happens to be in London when the Argentine president swings by.
“We do get on excellently. She openly and directly confronts and faces up not just to wokeism but she also has a courageous position with regards to immigration. Because when immigration does not include cultural integration, it is not immigration anymore – it’s invasion,” he said about Meloni, his closest friend on the world stage.
That friendship has brought billions of dollars in Italian investments to Argentina, whose economy has boomed enough to placate most critics of Milei’s “austerity” agenda. Milei is also an outspoken supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, which suggests a memorable Rolling Stones cover act might take shape if Milei, Trump, Farage, and Meloni find themselves in a karaoke bar when Milei visits London.
Earlier in December, the Telegraph’s Tom Scotson quoted Farage saying he was “keen” to meet with Milei because “the Argentinian president has cut the administrative state – which Reform must do.”
Scotson seemed a bit fretful that Milei’s impending visit to the United Kingdom could “embolden the British Right” because they love the “firebrand anarcho-capitalist” and his “unique disdain for the state and the machinery of government.” The growing Milei appreciation society includes Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss.
“Many are privately hoping his visit will also invite strong contrasts between a growing Argentina, once seen as the basket case of South America, and a Britain that is teetering towards more state control and slower growth,” Scotson added.
“Milei’s visit captures the direction of travel in Britain and the world economy: the Right holds the momentum. What matters now is whether they can use it effectively,” he concluded.
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