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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: The usual suspects abstained from voting on a seemingly uncontroversial United Nations resolution that denounced violence against women and girls on Thursday — Iran, Russia, North Korea.
But the country casting the sole vote against the nonbinding resolution, drafted by France and the Netherlands, took the world by surprise. It was Argentina, long considered one of Latin America’s most socially progressive countries.
Unleashing an avalanche of criticism across the political spectrum on Friday, the ‘no’ vote by Buenos Aires marked the latest in a series of dramatic foreign policy shifts under President Javier Milei, the most right-wing leader in Argentina’s 41 years of democracy.
It comes just days after Milei, an outspoken climate change skeptic, abruptly called Argentina’s negotiators home from the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, stirring concerns that the radical economist might seek to emulate former US President Donald Trump in withdrawing Argentina entirely from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Not only has Milei transformed Argentine foreign policy in line with the United States and Israel, his government has also taken fringe positions on the global stage that fly in the face of the liberal, rules-based international order.
“It’s a big break with standard Argentine foreign policy, which has long been oriented toward making Argentina an integrated part of the Global South,” said Richard Sanders, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former State Department official in the region. “It’s a definitely a significant change in how Argentina relates internationally.”
Argentina’s vote at the UN Thursday recalled a similar clash last month when Argentina became the only member of all the Group of 20 nations to sign onto a statement adopting language about gender equality.
“Argentina votes alone, against the rest of humanity,” the conservative party of former President Mauricio Macri, an ally of Milei’s government, wrote on social media platform X Friday.
Another centrist party, the Unión Cívica Radical, joined the chorus of local condemnation.
“By fighting imaginary cultural battles we end up isolated from the world,” said Senator Martín Lousteau, president of the centrist party.
Lousteau denounced Argentina’s UN vote opposing an end to gender violence as a “disgrace.” Top official Guillermo Francos defended the decision, saying “neither commitments nor treaties will solve the issue of gender violence.”
Nearly a year into his presidency, the former Argentine TV pundit remains erratic and idiosyncratic in the global spotlight, in striking similarity to Trump. Milei became the first foreign leader since the US election to meet Trump, albeit informally, late Thursday at the president-elect’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
In a congratulatory phone call with Trump earlier this week, Miei’s spokesperson reported that Trump told the Argentine leader: “You’re my favorite president.” Trump has not confirmed the claim.
The Argentine presidency on Friday proudly released a stream of photos from Mar-a-Lago featuring Milei in a sharp suit beaming alongside Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, with whom Milei has also publicly cultivated a bromance over their shared contempt for “wokeness,” gender issues and socialism.
In November 2023, an angry Argentine electorate fed up with sky-high inflation, debt defaults and bank runs handed the outsider a sweeping mandate to carry out an overhaul of Argentina’s crisis-stricken economy.
But along with Milei’s libertarian crusade has come a series of cultural battles — both at home, where the president eliminated Argentina’s women’s and environment ministries and scrapped the national anti-discrimination institute, as well as abroad, where Milei has sought to fashion himself as a far-right icon, raising the hackles of key allies like Brazil and Spain.
“Milei got into the presidency on the basis of his clearly stated libertarian views, it was all about the economy,” Sanders said. “But these other views are nothing he kept hidden.”
Tensions over Milei’s culture war escalated this month. When Argentina voted at the UN in favor of ending the American economic embargo against Cuba on Oct. 30, Milei fired then-Foreign Minister Diana Mondino over what he called her “unforgivable mistake” and swiftly replaced her with Gerardo Werthein, a wealthy businessman who had been Buenos Aires’ ambassador to the US.
This weekend, Milei and Werthein plan to meet Trump again at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Experts say that Milei hopes to cash in on his friendship with Trump to help crisis-stricken Argentina secure a much-needed infusion cash infusion from the International Monetary Fund, to which Argentina owes over $44 billion. The US is the fund’s largest shareholder.
In recent weeks, Milei’s shock dismissal of Argentina’s top diplomat — a polished political performer who frequently worked to mend diplomatic relations strained by Milei’s profanity-laden fights with traditional allies — has sent shivers through Argentina’s diplomatic ranks.
Milei has vowed to purge his foreign ministry of so-called “traitors to the country” who have strayed from his stance, which includes rejecting the “Pact for the Future” adopted by the UN in September that promotes climate action, female empowerment and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Local media has reported the forced resignations of at least seven diplomats in recent weeks who were perceived as critical of the president’s Trump-like attacks on the collective philosophy of the UN Milei accuses such multilateral forums of restricting members’ freedom.
Argentina’s left-leaning Peronist movement — which has dominated the country’s politics for decades — was seething Friday, with lawmakers aghast at what they saw as the unraveling of hard-won social gains like Argentina’s breakthrough legalization of abortion in 2020 and recent efforts to curb fossil fuels.
“For you, freedom is violence,” said Mayra Mendoza, a prominent Peronist politician on Friday, addressing Milei.
The libertarian has called abortion “murder,” climate change a “socialist lie” and the UN a “leviathan with multiple tentacles.”

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The Dutch government dominated by hard-right leader Geert Wilders survived a government crisis that centered on the resignation of the finance state secretary over what she saw as denigrating comments on immigrants after Israeli fans were assaulted following a soccer game in Amsterdam.
Wilders last Wednesday blamed Moroccans for attacks on Israeli soccer fans, claiming that “we saw Muslims hunting Jews” and added it was fueled by ”Moroccans who want to destroy Jews.” He said those convicted of involvement should be deported if they have dual nationality.
Morocco-born Nora Achahbar of centrist New Social Contract party announced her resignation as finance secretary late Friday after a heated cabinet meeting discussing last week’s violence on the streets of Amsterdam after a football match between local club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

She said that “the polarizing manners have had such an impact on me that I could, or would, no longer fulfill my role as state secretary.”
“Polarization in society is dangerous because it undermines the bond between people. Because of that, we start seeing each other as opponent instead of fellow citizens,” Achahbar said in her resignation letter to parliament on Friday.

Achahbar departure prompted speculation that other members of NSC party — a junior partner in the four-party Dutch coalition government — would follow suit.

But late Friday, Schoof told journalists at a press conference that party leaders decided to continue to work together, averting the potential fall of his not yet five-month-old government.
“Nora Achahbar has decided not to continue as Deputy Minister,” the premier said.
“But as the cabinet we decided to continue together,” Schoof said after a five-hour emergency meeting with his coalition partners at his official residence in The Hague.

The Dutch government officially announced Achahbar’s resignation in a statement late Friday.
“The King, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, granted this resignation in the most honorable manner,” the government statement said.
On Monday, during the cabinet meeting to discuss the attacks, “things reportedly got heated, and in Achahbar’s opinion racist statements were made,” the NOS public broadcaster said.
“Achahbar reportedly indicated then that she, as a minister, had objections to certain language used by her colleagues,” NOS added.
Coalition party leaders gathered in The Hague for an emergency session on Friday evening to discuss the current crisis, with NSC acting leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven saying beforehand “we will see” if her party wanted to continue in the government coalition.
Far-right leader Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party won the most seats in Dutch elections a year ago, but the coalition it formed would lose its majority if the NSC pulled out of the government.
The ruling coalition led by Schoof has 88 seats in parliament between the NSC, the Freedom Party (PVV), the Liberal VVD and farmer-friendly BBB party.

The political turbulence was set in motion after Maccabi fans were chased and beaten on November 7 in attacks that Schoof said were prompted by “unadulterated anti-Semitism.”
Far-right leader Wilders said during a debate on Wednesday that the perpetrators of the violence were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans.”
He called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism.”
Dutch authorities however also reported that Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag before the match, chanted anti-Arab slurs and vandalized a taxi.
Police launched a massive probe into the incident which Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said was “racing ahead,” although much still remained unclear about the night’s events.
The violence struck amid heightened tensions and polarization in Europe following a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.
But the Dutch government late Thursday said it needed “more time” to flesh out a strategy to fight anti-Semitism.