Karina Milei, secretary general of the Presidency, and Buenos Aires city mayor Jorge Macri walked the area around the Monument to the Spanish in Palermo on Sunday, where construction and logistics for Pope Leo XIV's visit are moving forward, according to Clarin.com. The Pope is due to celebrate a Mass and a youth vigil on Monday the 9th and Tuesday the 10th. The tour covered the ground where the stage is being built for the Mass.
Karina Milei, the president's sister, said the point of the joint appearance was to show the public that different levels of government can cooperate. "We wanted to show people that it is possible to work together; we are doing it across all jurisdictions," she said, as reported by Clarin.com.
Macri described coordination that extends beyond the city. He said teams from worship affairs, security, the Cabinet Office and the Presidency's general secretariat had been working together, and that the city was also in contact with Buenos Aires province because the Pope leaves the capital at one point during the visit. "We have been working as a team in an exceptional way," he said.
Why it matters
The visit puts a national government and a city government run by different political forces on the same planning effort, and both officials used the tour to present that cooperation as the story. The event is expected to draw large crowds of faithful and others who want to hear the Pope's message, which Macri described as one of unity and peace. He called the occasion historic and said the aim was to welcome many people on both days in calm and safety, backed by what he described as a substantial investment and professional work by all the teams involved.
The walk-through also served as a show of institutional coordination at a moment when the national executive is managing several other fronts, from an election in Bariloche to questions about who will attend the papal events.
Officials from both administrations on site
The delegation mixed national and city officials. On the national side were Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli, Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva and Worship Secretary Agustin Caulo. Representing the city were Cabinet Chief Gabriel Sanchez Zinny, Security Minister Horacio Gimenez and Fulvio Pompeo, secretary general and international relations. Clarin.com and other outlets published photographs of Karina Milei and Macri at the site.
The visit generated side coverage as well. Infobae ran a photo of the two officials during the preparations, and La Nacion reported on their inspection of work at the stage where the Pope will say Mass. TN quoted Karina Milei's remarks about demonstrating that joint work is possible.
Denial over the vice president's role
Separately, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno pushed back on a report that the government would not invite Vice President Victoria Villarruel to the main papal event. In a post on X, he wrote that there had been no formal request for the President to board the plane when the Pope arrives, and that the government does not wish to cancel Villarruel's official presence. He said the visit would be a celebration for all Argentines, according to Clarin.com.
The same live coverage noted other developments away from the Palermo preparations: one man was detained in Bariloche for causing disturbances and assaulting a security officer during that city's election day, with more than 200 officers deployed by Rio Negro province. Presidential spokesman Adrian Ravier also posted about education spending, saying that in 2023 a large share of national education program funds did not reach classrooms and that spending had been reorganized since 2024, with a focus on literacy. Clarin.com reported his claim that all 23 jurisdictions improved in Language on the 2025 Aprender tests.
A radical party lawmaker, Pablo Juliano, also sought an interpellation of Quirno over his handling of the departure of Flavio Bolsonaro from Brazil, according to the same coverage.
For the papal visit itself, the focus now shifts to finishing the stage and crowd arrangements at the Palermo site before the Mass and the youth vigil.
