AFP:Argentina’s President Javier Milei raised the ire Monday of his counterparts on South America’s Mercosur bloc for snubbing their summit just one day after attending a far-right gathering in Brazil.
Brazil’s leftist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, with whom ultra-liberal Milei has traded many barbs, told reporters at the Paraguay summit that Milei’s absence was “a huge foolishness.” Milei, a self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” who has picked fights with numerous leftist leaders since taking office in December, recently described Lula as a “little lefty” with an “inflated ego.”
But at Monday’s meeting, even fellow right-leaning leaders Luis Lacalle Pou of Uruguay and Santiago Pena of host nation Paraguay, lamented Milei’s absence. It was the first time new member Bolivia attended a Mercosur .