'Socialism leads to slavery and death' - Milei and Meloni speak at far-right Madrid rally

Argentinian President Javier Milei was the headline act at a global far-right summit on Sunday organized by Spain's VOX party called 'Viva 24' in Madrid.

Milei followed the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni  who joined via videolink, the Argentine President focusing on economic ideas. He gave an impassioned speech that drew a standing ovation from around 10,000 people in the Vistalegre stadium in the Spanish capital.

The Argentine firebrand said "socialism leads to slavery and death," as part of an anti-state, ultra-liberal, pro-market speech where Milei used Argentinian history as an example.

"When I see Europe and the U.S. today I see the signs of the terrible path that we as Argentinians went down when socialism destroyed Argentinian capitalism."

'To open the door to socialism is to invite death in' - Milei

Milei blasted: "Socialism in Argentina and across the world has been a failure, a cultural failure, an economic failure, a failure that has left a massive number of corpses, to open the door to socialism is to invite death in."

"We have to remove the parasitic state from people's lives," Milei said, extolling the virtues of unfettered capitalism: "Free markets create prosperity" he insisted.

The speech came as a continuation of a controversial visit during which Milei ignored Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the King of Spain, speaking to Spanish business leaders and accepting the invitation of Santiago Abascal, leader of the VOX far-right party, to participate in Sunday's summit.

The visit mirrored his United States trip where Milei met with Trump and Elon Musk, ignoring President Joe Biden.

Meloni: 'It's time to raise the stakes'

Italy's Meloni addressed the Viva 24 summit live via video link speaking in Spanish, calling for a mass mobilization for the European elections on June 6-9.

"It's time to raise the stakes," she said, "we have to fight until the very last day." Meloni encouraged Spanish people to get out on the streets and to vote for VOX to bring change to the European parliament, which she called a "bureaucratic giant that tries to regulate every aspect of our lives."

"We can create a different and better EU," she said, one that could focus its resources on things like "defending its own borders instead of forcing its citizens to accept masses of illegal immigrants against its will."

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'History is repeating itself'

Meanwhile at the Plaza de Colon in central Madrid an anti-fascist demonstration took place during the meeting with around 1,500 people in attendance.

Protesters held up caricatures of far-right leaders including Donald Trump and chanted anti-fascist slogans, with many Argentine flags there and signs protesting against Milei's policies in the Latin American country.

"I'm a history teacher and you can see how history is repeating itself," one protester, Victoria Mas, told CGTN, "it's scary to think about how they want to change Europe and take away our rights. We have to stop fascism."

Diego Alonso, another protester, agreed. "We're against Milei, against far right policies, basically against everything about far right ultra-liberalism, against budget cuts, against the far-right ransacking our society."

Paloma Rodríguez told CGTN that the upcoming elections will shape what happens on the continent.

"The European elections outcome will be the prelude for what will happen in other countries afterwards, so it's crucial. The far right is growing in support from citizens and they will vote the same in their country's elections, so we need to do something to stop it."

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