(Buenos Aires) A chainsaw brandished in meetings to denounce “the enemy state”, public spending: the shocking image attached to Javier Milei, inaugurated as Argentine president on Sunday, illustrates the therapy that the ultraliberal promises to the third economy of Latin America.
In barely two years, since his election as deputy in 2021, this former polemicist beloved of TV sets for his provocative, impulsive, even crude outings, has overturned Argentine politics, sweeping away the Peronist (center left) and right-wing blocs, which alternated in power for 20 years.
“Long live freedom, carajo!” » (Long live freedom, damn it! ), is the mantra of the one who was able to capture the anger of the Argentines, incredulous in their country with rich resources, but mired in inflation at 143% over one year, structural debt, and poverty affecting 40% of the population.
Through deregulation and privatization, Milei, 53, intends to make Argentina “a world power” again, as when it was a “promised land” of emigration at the beginning of the 20e century. A theme of “rediscovered greatness” which evokes Donald Trump, for whom he expressed his admiration, and who promised to come see him.
Determined to put an end to “the aberration called social justice, synonymous with budget deficit”, Milei wants to dollarize the economy and eliminate the Central Bank when the greenback has replaced the peso, the national currency which he treated as “excrement” .
“Wake the lions”
“Anarchocapitalist” as he describes himself, libertarian, with far-right postures and a libertarian touch, Milei has found resonance, with his speech of meritocracy and degagism, with a predominantly young audience that transcends social strata .
“I am not here to guide lambs, but to wake lions!” ”, is another favorite slogan of the “lion” Milei, an emblem that he has cultivated, evoking his hair-mane. As much as an atypical look, sometimes in a leather jacket, for this Stones fan who sang, young, in a rock band, and played football at a decent level.
“Just if he realized 50% of what he said, it would change our future a lot,” Franco Propato, a 23-year-old cycle salesman, told AFP this week, ready to give Milei time because everything “can’t be fixed overnight”.
But Milei also frightens with controversial positions such as the deregulation of the sale of arms, her opposition to abortion legalized in 2021 in Argentina. Or his belief that climate change is just a “cycle”, not “a human responsibility”.
Aware of shocking, he has lowered his tone since his election, avoiding sensitive themes, reaching out to leaders like the Brazilian Lula, or Pope Francis, whom he had once insulted. Or pragmatically pacting to form his government with figures from the Macri presidency (2015-2019), the “political caste” that he recently stigmatized.
What will a President Milei actually do? Compromises, certainly, in a Parliament where his young party, La Libertad Avanza, is only 3e strength (38 deputies out of 257). But inevitably also painful budgetary adjustments, the first in the coming days.
“Risk of confrontation”
Milei “brings with him an ingredient of political-social confrontation”, worries Gabriel Vammaro, political scientist at the University of San Martin, to AFP.
The private Milei remains little-known, intriguing: not very worldly, he has a close, restricted circle, in particular a close relationship with his sister Karina Milei, 50 years old, omnipresent at his side, half-advisor, half-secretary: “the boss”, as he describes it.
His daily family until recently consisted of five enormous English mastiffs with the names of economists – his “children”, he says – with whom he lived in a “country”, a closed private neighborhood in the north of Buenos Aires. For several months of campaigning, however, they have been in daycare.
Single for a long time, he recently appeared with a 42-year-old comedian, Fatima Florez.
Javier Gerado Milei grew up in the suburbs of Buenos Aires in a middle-class family (father bus driver then head of a transport SME, stay-at-home mother), with whom he admitted a “complex” relationship, marked in particular by paternal violence. For years, he cut ties.
An economics graduate, he alternated between consulting in the private sector and teaching, between conferences, books and columns. A director of the University of Belgrano, Viktor Beker, remembers “an excellent student, very intelligent and diligent, with a facility for maths”, and “hard work”.
More than once, his rivals have mocked his “aggressiveness”, tried to portray him as “unstable”, even “crazy”. He laughed about it, continuing his political, but also spiritual, path: the one who considers that God “is libertarian”, like him, has moved closer to Judaism for two years, studies the Torah as an autodidact, attracted by the Talmudic “dialectic” to analyze the problems.