Milei’s fans in France want ‘chainsaw’ to stave off ‘crisis’

As France grapples with record public debt and searches for ways to put its public finances in order, supporters of Argentina’s President Javier Milei want to see the government revive the “chainsaw” austerity cuts the libertarian leader has imposed in his country.

“France needs to bring out the chainsaw,” said Vadim Asadov, president of the Partido Libertario ( Libertarian Party), which claims around 1,000 supporters and members. “The longer we wait, the deeper the crisis will be, a bit like the one Argentina went through.”

Asadov was among around 50 demonstrators who gathered near Argentina’s Embassy in Paris on Wednesday evening, where Milei opened ‘Argentina Week’ with a reception. The three-day roadshow is aimed at attracting European investors.

But his visit comes as President Emmanuel Macron’s government faces the task of setting out how it will implement a promised 54-billion-euro (US$62 billion) fiscal adjustment in France’s 2027 Budget.

With seven months to go before presidential elections to choose his successor, Macron’s government is warning of the risk of a financial crisis if action is not taken. 

Public debt is expected to reach 121.7 percent of GDP in 2027.

The ‘cure’

Against this backdrop, Milei – a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” – has found an audience in France, particularly among a minority seeking to advance liberal ideas aimed at putting public finances in order and reducing the size of the state.

“Milei showed that when a country has real economic and budgetary problems,” it is possible to campaign and win “by telling the truth about the situation and proposing cuts,” said Michael Miguères, the author of La Révolution Milei.

Romain Dominati is one of the Frenchmen convinced by Milei’s approach. The spokesperson for Les Mileïstes Français, a group highly active on social media with more than 50,000 followers on X, waited near the Embassy in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Argentine leader.

“He is more than a model for France, he is almost a mirage, a kind of distant hope of what could happen,” Dominati said, holding a chainsaw painted in the colours of the Argentine flag.

For his group, Cannes mayor David Lisnard, a liberal, is the presidential candidate who comes closest to their idol. But, “unfortunately,” the French people are unaware “that France needs to be given a Milei-style cure,” he said.

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed inflation from an annual 161 percent to 33 percent, public accounts have been brought into balance and foreign-exchange reserves have been partially rebuilt.

‘Authoritarian liberalism’

But Milei’s near three years of austerity have taken a heavy toll on industry, employment and consumption. Poverty, reversing a downward trend, rose in the first half of 2026 and now affects almost one in three Argentines.

At another protest organised by the Asamblea de Ciudadanos Argentinos en Francia (“Assembly of Argentine Citizens in France”) around 150 people gathered with the Eiffel Tower in the background to warn about the effects of Milei’s economic policies.

“The practice of power under Milei is ultimately a form of authoritarian liberalism,” claimed David Copello, a researcher and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris.

Beyond an official meeting with Macron on Thursday, no politician has confirmed a meeting with Milei, although he has attracted interest from French business circles.

He will receive an award from the Paris Economic Forum on Friday, a private forum that brings together business leaders, for “the coherence and breadth of the economic programme he implemented as president.”

However, French Nobel Prize-winning economist Philippe Aghion, who will receive another award at the event, says the chainsaw cure cannot be applied to the European Union’s second-largest economy because “France is absolutely not in the same situation Argentina was in.”

“There are debt problems, but it is a different situation ... State reform is necessary, but that does not necessarily mean cutting everything,” the economist told AFP, defending, for example, the role of the state in education and healthcare.