Javier Milei, the libertarian who burst onto the Argentine political scene as the most voted presidential candidate (30.04%) in the primaries, he is an ultra-liberal anti-establishment who capitalized on the frustration of some seven million voters and shocked the traditional parties for the October elections.
These are some keys to know it:
the provocateur
Nicknamed the ‘lion’ for his tousled mane, Milei is a 52-year-old economist who calls “End with the parasitic, stupid (thief) and useless political caste”a speech that captured the disappointment with the parties that governed in recent years: Peronism and the center-right of Together for Change.
“Ten years of stagnation and five of high inflation fueled a disbelief in broad sectors regarding the ability to govern of the two great coalitions. Milei managed to question that disbelief and build an electorate from nothing, from disenchanted with both coalitions “Gabriel Puricelli, a political scientist from the Public Policy Laboratory, told AFP.
His popularity was cemented from television, where he was a regular economic panelist. In the primaries he capitalized on that penetration and won in 16 of 24 provinces.
“The last time there was an irruption like this in a national election, it was with Peronism in 1946”Puricelli stressed.
A “elephant passed us and we didn’t see it” editorialized the newspaper Clarín by pointing out analysts, pollsters and politicians alike.
for miley “People are angry, because they are not seeing what is happening to them, but talking about ‘voto rant’ is pejorative. We are in a change of era. The Argentines said enough to the caste model”.
The new
The flow of votes places him as the protagonist of a second round if none of the candidates reaches the Four. Five% of support – or more than 40% with ten points ahead of the second – in the general elections on October 22.
His main rivals are Patricia Bullrich (Together for Change, center-right) and the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa (Union for the Fatherland, Peronism) who obtained 28% and 27% of the votes respectively in the primaries.
“No one imagined it. It was first in places where he had no support, without even electoral prosecutors, with absolutely nothing ”, said Juan Negri, professor of Political Science at Torcuato di Tella University.
Milei hit home because “promises something new”he opined.
Carolina Carabajal, a 20-year-old student, supports Milei because “is different”. “Our grandparents, our parents chose Peronism for 20 or 30 years and the country remains the same,” held.
Government plan
In her proposals, Milei dispenses with the State. Her program promotes the dollarization of the economy, the elimination of the Central Bank and the ministries of Health, Education and Public Works that she plans to replace with private investment.
“We want to carry out a much more severe adjustment program than the one requested by the International Monetary Fund. The adjustment will be where politics steals”, said.
It promotes the privatization of public companies, tariffs on health and education, and making labor relations more flexible. An enemy of the “paternalistic State” and “populist governments”, he defines himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”.
On other issues he is conservative: he rejects abortion and sexual education in schools.
“The only rights that I claim are to life, liberty and property; the rest are ideological constructions.” think.
And he does not spare provocative statements, such as when he proposed “dynamiting the Central Bank.” “It’s not a metaphor,” she said.
“The political class does not know how to read it. He takes it literally, but he doesn’t take it seriously. His voters do the opposite: they don’t take his proposals literally, but they do take him seriously. They recognize themselves before someone who finally says something new”Negri said.
The “boss” and his dogs
Milei is a loner. He lives in a private neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with his sister, Karina, whom he calls “the boss” of his political career.
Without a partner or children, he is far from a father who denigrated him with fierce beatings as a child, according to what he confessed. He lives with four mastiffs, whom he considers his “four-legged children”
An admirer of the Rolling Stones, he was the vocalist of the band Everest, a tribute to the legendary British group. He also had a stint in professional soccer as a goalkeeper for the Chacarita club, in the second division.
According to his unauthorized biography, he was bullied at school, where he is remembered as a withdrawn child.
He admires the economists Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek, as well as the Argentine politician Juan Bautista Alberdi. “I only aspire to be a good disciple of Alberdi, the great thinker of freedom”he expressed.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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