Argentina’s citizens have recently chosen as their President, by the largest margin of victory since the restoration of democracy in 1983, the candidate most likely, in their opinion, to lift their nation out of its current economic malaise. On 19 November 2023, Javier Gerardo Milei received 55.7 per cent of the vote in the second round of the presidential election, the first round being on 22 October. Economy Minister Sergio Massa was relegated to second position with a 44.3 per cent share of the vote. Milei’s presidential journey had begun with 30 per cent of the national vote in the primary election on 14 August 2023. He will be sworn in as President on 10 December, expected to deliver his proposed electric shock treatment to rejuvenate a flailing Argentine economy and to begin reconstruction of his country.
Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who likens himself to a “lion” and to a “king”, is a right-wing, libertarian, populist, and anti-establishment political figure, considered an “outsider” by many prior to his election as President. His views were often diametrically opposed to those of his vanquished centre-left Peronist opponent. His combative campaigning style, with flourishes of abrasive Trumpian rhetoric, has met with the approval of those who seen in him the making of a “strong man”, more than capable of delivering on his radical promises. His electoral victory has predictably been well received by fellow figures on the right of the political spectrum, including Jair Bolsonaro, Giorgia Meloni, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump, whose call to “Make America Great Again” inspired Miel’s supporters to sport “Make Argentina Great Again” hats. His message was further amplified on social media platforms by a growing army of young supporters with whom his anti-establishment rhetoric aimed at the “political caste” resonates, particularly on TikTok.
A former professor of economics, Milei has served as Head Economist at Corporación América, an Argentine business conglomerate that operates most of the country’s airports. He gained national prominence as an economic commentator on Argentine TV shows, before entering politics in 2020. Milei has served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2021, the year his La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) right-wing coalition party was formed. Despite his personal victory, La Libertad Avanza is restricted to just eight seats in the 72-member Senate and 38 seats in the 257-member Chamber of Deputies.
Nicknamed “El Loco” (the madman) and “the wig”-the latter because of his unruly crop of hair, Milei has views which are widely shared by right-wing politicians across the planet. He favours a small state, low taxes, and swingeing cuts in government spending of up to 15 per cent of GDP, carrying a chainsaw to many of his rallies as a symbol of what he intends to do to the public budget. Milei considers climate change to be a “scientific hoax”, hopes to restrict abortion to instances where it is necessary to save the mother’s life, favours relaxing gun control laws, and has “zero tolerance” for crime. Above all, he is a free-market enthusiast, thus opposed to the four-member Mercosur (Southern Common Market) trading bloc. Bizarrely, his support of the free market extends to the legalisation of the sale and purchase of human organs.
As a historical revisionist, Milei questions the current consensus over the detrimental effects of the military dictatorship in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. In the matter of foreign relations, he favours closer links with the US and Israel while seeking to cut ties with Brazil and China, two of Argentina’s largest trading partners, and professes a dislike of the “leftist” Argentine-born Pope Francis. Although an admirer of Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies, Milei seeks the restoration of what he considers “non-negotiable” Argentine sovereignty over Las Islas Malvinas, better known as the Falkland Islands, a goal that has widel public support.
Although an advocate of free love and a practitioner of Tantric sex, Milei opposes sex education. His other extracurricular pursuits include an eclectic love of music, which led him to emulate Mick Jagger as lead singer of a Rolling Stones cover band called Everest. Milei has never married. Although he has been in a relationship with actress and artist Fatima Florez since July 2023, it seems likely that his sister Karina will fill the role of First Lady for the time being, at least.
Argentina is currently plagued by rapidly rising inflation, which has worsened an already crippling cost-of-living crisis. Inflation first crept above 100 per cent in February 2023, when it rose to 102.5 per cent, and has continued to rise, reaching 142.7 per cent in October 2023. Over 40 per cent of Argentines are reported to live in poverty, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).
Milei seeks to abolish the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (Banco Central de la República Argentina, BCRA), which he blames for fuelling inflation by printing money to meet the government’s financial commitments, and to dollarize the Argentine economy by replacing the peso as official currency with the US dollar. His economic austerity regime, in a country with depleted foreign currency reserves and $44 billion in debt to the IMF, includes cuts in social and welfare spending, the privatisation of state assets and public broadcasters, and the trimming back of government bureaucracy, which includes the closure of the ministries of culture, women, health, and education. Whatever one might think of Milei as a person, there can be no denying that he faces a most formidable task as President, even as many prominent economists predict economic damage, rather than renewed growth, as a direct result of his proposed policies.
Argentina’s turbulent economic history throughout much of the 20th and 21st centuries has been defined by instability, frequent financial crises, several transitions between interventionist and free-market governments, and an unhappy relationship between the peso and the US dollar. Milei’s proposed economic regime replicates aspects of the market-driven Carlos Menem administration of the early 1990s, during which Argentina was a poster child of free-marketeers, only to fall into recession in the late 1990s from a series of external shocks. What Milei can deliver in a four-year term remains to be seen. All that is certain is that the economic track record of Argentina ever since the 1920s does not inspire confidence widely.
Ashis Banerjee