Javier Milei’s economic policy risks requiring a repressive apparatus reminiscent of dictatorship

Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina on Sunday, November 19, with more than 55% of the votes. The candidate succeeded in convincing voters that with his anti-system enthusiasm and his libertarian ideas, he could lift up the country mired in 140% inflation. A new president with a profile as explosive as it is worrying.

Javier Milei congratulates himself on being the first anarcho-libertarian president in the history of humanity. Approved by almost 56% of Argentines, Sunday November 19, he is preparing to overturn the table with a “clearance” policy. He plans to eliminate the ministries of Education, Health and Environment, reduce the role of the State as much as possible and privatize at all levels to revive the economy. All this while summoning the memory of a period that we thought was over in Argentina, that of the dictatorship.

Rehabilitate the victims of the communists

The “generals’ regime”, from 1976 to 1983, was a period of terror during which historians have documented the executions of 15,000 people, the exile of 1.5 million Argentines and the disappearance of 30,000 political opponents. Since he is a candidate, Javier Milei can count on the determination of Victoria Villaruel to twist these historical facts and justify the repressive policy of General Videla. In a few weeks, this lawyer deputy, daughter of an Argentine colonel, will be named vice-president.

This lady dedicated a large part of her life to rehabilitating the victims caused by the opposition to the dictatorship. She does not strictly speaking support the military junta of the late 1970s, but she wishes to dismantle the Dictatorship Memorial, a center of military torture, which she wishes to transform into a place of pleasure for all the Argentine people. She also asks to be able to pay tribute to “his dead”namely the victims of armed communist groups opposed to the dictatorship: “Here in Argentina, there are the dead who deserve tears and those who are buried in the depths of History. This ‘double standard’ that the left wants to impose on us does not scare us. We We will not stop celebrating our dead, until our last breath.”

The policies he carries “only apply with strong repression”

Victoria Villaruel visited General Videla in prison for a long time, for the purposes, she said, of a book in tribute to those who fought to defend the dictatorship. The future vice-president denounces the actions, which she describes as terrorist, of the Montoneros, or People’s Revolutionary Army, these armed groups of the Argentine extreme left, which are on the same political line as the current deputy Miriam Bregman. This denounces: “You know why Villaruel cuts me off? You know why Milei claims to be negationist? Because the policies they support are those of the Minister of the Economy during the dictatorship, policies which only apply with a strong repression.”

The arrival of Javier Milei brings back the specter of the Argentine repressive apparatus and puts all the counter-powers in the country on alert. His radical, anti-system political project involves sometimes unconstitutional measures, often outside his future powers. It is therefore very likely that Milei will come to govern by decrees, necessarily sources of social conflagration. Javier Milei therefore took great care to retain the military vote throughout the campaign.