Milei appointee resigns as Paris university residence controversy grows

Santiago Muzio, the controversial director of Casa Argentina student residence in Paris, has resigned after months of criticism.

Muzio has been criticised in recent days for the alleged expulsions of students, the removal of a plaque paying tribute to those who disappeared during Argentina's dictatorship and the hosting of far-right political meetings.

Casa Argentina is one of almost 50 residences at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, which hosts around 12,000 students, researchers and artists from 150 nationalities each year.

"Yes, he resigned," a source at Argentina's Human Capital Ministry told the AFP news agency on Sunday, confirming reports by the Clarín newspaper that Muzio had stepped down.

Appointed by President Javier Milei's government in 2024, the Franco-Argentine lawyer faced a series of controversies during his tenure.

On July 30, Paris City Hall asked French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to launch an "investigation" into his management. Barrot said last week that France was holding "talks with the Argentine authorities".

In recent reporting by AFP, residents during the 2025-2026 academic year described a "mini-dictatorship" at the residence, where they said people lived in "constant fear" and without "freedom of expression.”

Muzio did not respond to AFP's questions.

But in comments to the French conservative newspaper Journal du Dimanche (JDD) days before his resignation, he said his project was to "root this place out of the clutches of the far left and woke ideology.”

His resignation comes days after those comments and weeks before Milei's planned visit to France, scheduled for later this month.