Argentine President Milei travels to France to meet Macron after outcry over racist soccer chants

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentine President Javier Milei arrived Thursday in Paris, his office said, where he is expected to meet French President Emmanuel Macron after tensions escalated between their countries over the Argentine soccer team’s derogatory post-match chants about French players.

A short clip captured during Argentina’s Copa America victory celebrations in Miami earlier this month shows triumphant Argentine players chanting a song considered racist toward French players of African heritage. “They play for France but their parents are from Angola,” the refrain goes, with some transphobic slurs mixed in.

French officials castigated the Argentina athletes in the Instagram live video posted by midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who publicly apologized. The French soccer federation filed a legal complaint over the "unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks." Fernandez’s English club Chelsea started an internal disciplinary procedure.

Censure from the soccer world snowballed into a political scandal last week when Argentina’s conservative vice president, Victoria Villarruel, defended Fernandez and the team, saying that Argentina would not tolerate criticism from a "colonialist” country.

In a widely shared social media post, she insisted that Argentina was not a racist country because, unlike France, "We never had colonies or second-class citizens. We never imposed our way of life on anyone."

"Enough with faking indignation, hypocrites," she added.

French diplomats in Buenos Aires were seething.

President Milei, a right-wing populist, has sought to walk a fine line - nodding to the upswell of nationalism buoying the Argentina team while attempting to curb diplomatic backlash. Already, Milei’s rhetorical attacks on leaders and enthusiasm for the far-right have sparked diplomatic rows with Argentina’s historic allies and major foreign investors, Brazil and Spain.

Last week, Milei removed the undersecretary of sport, Julio Garro, from his post for requesting that team captain Lionel Messi apologize for the chants. “No government can tell the Argentine national team, world champion and two-time champion of Copa America, what to comment, what to think or what to do," Milei’s office said at the time.

But more recently Milei’s spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, has tried to distance the president from what he called Villarruel’s "personal” and "unfortunate" comments.

He said that Karina Milei, the president’s sister and general secretary, took it upon herself to disavow the vice president’s statement in a meeting with the French ambassador last week.

"It’s a comment that does not represent the opinion of the government," Adorni said of Villarruel’s post. "Relations with France are intact.”

Controversy mounted Wednesday when chaos engulfed the Olympic men's soccer match between Argentina and Morocco, with fans invading the field and throwing bottles in protest of a late goal by Argentina and the game restarting nearly two hours after it had appeared to finish.

"Argentina is the enemy in France,” was a headline Thursday in Argentine newspaper Clarín, citing the deafening boos and jeers that greeted the Argentine national anthem.

Doubling down on her nationalist messaging, Vice President Villarruel posted footage of the Argentine players dodging bottles from Morocco fans on the field.

"Although they insult us and whistle our anthem, Argentina is destined for greatness," she wrote. "Long live Argentina!"

The Argentine presidency said that in addition to meeting Macron and other French officials at the Elysee Palace on Friday, Milei would attend the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony and hold talks with French business leaders.

The investment-focused meetings come as Argentina seeks to lobby for support from major shareholders of the International Monetary Fund, including France and the U.S., to reach a new deal for extra funds.