The economy must be at the service of the people, rather than people being at the service of the economy.
Pope Leo XIV has used the opening of his Argentine visit to deliver a pointed critique of President Javier Milei's austerity programme, telling an audience in Buenos Aires that growth must benefit all. According to The Guardian, the pontiff said on Sunday, shortly after landing on the second leg of a 12-day Latin America tour, that "the economy must be at the service of the people, rather than people being at the service of the economy." The remark was met with rapturous applause.
Leo drew attention to those who, in his words, "despite hard work, nonetheless struggle to meet their household's needs", and spoke in defence of the poor and pensioners. He called for "particular concern be shown for those affected by illness, dependency and disability" — a passage the newspaper describes as a veiled reference to the government's controversial cuts to disability assistance. He also told Milei, known for his foul-mouthed diatribes, that strengthening democracy required a "willingness to listen" and the "careful use of words".
The setting gives the speech unusual weight. It is the first papal visit to Argentina in nearly four decades, and it comes after three years of austerity under Milei that have left the country bitterly divided between the president's supporters and opponents. Leo, 71, is undertaking the tour just three weeks after surgery for lung cancer, a detail that underlines the physical as well as political commitment behind the trip. He said he was "retracing" the steps of the late Pope Francis, an Argentine whose pro-poor teachings Milei famously insulted.
For Milei, the encounter is awkward in a particular way. The president's public persona is built on combative language and a radical programme of spending cuts; the pope's address offered a direct moral challenge to both, and did so on home soil and before a domestic audience receptive to it. The Guardian reports that Argentines hope the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics can help unite the country. One retired teacher, Liliana Deblauwe, 68, told the paper: "Just like the World Cup unites us, hopefully the pope will too." A 26-year-old job seeker, Brian Inacio Rodriguez, travelled overland for five days from Ushuaia to see the pontiff, saying he hoped he brought "much peace to Argentina".
What the visit will change in policy is not yet known. The report gives no indication that Milei responded to the criticism, nor that the government intends to revisit any of the cuts the pope appeared to reference. Whether the speech shifts Argentine public argument, or remains a moral gesture with limited practical effect, cannot be judged from the material available. What is clear is that the tour's second stop has placed the Vatican's moral authority squarely against the most prominent austerity government in the region — and that the pope chose to make the case in the language of service, dignity and restraint, at a moment when Argentine politics has offered little of any of the three.
