After retweeting the image of a gigantic Schutzstaffel (SS)-style boot crushing the hammer and sickle, with the legend “We are a few hours away from the end of communism in Argentina,” Javier Milei assumed the presidency of Argentina yesterday with a conciliatory speech at the who asked for the support of “political, union and business leaders in the face of the deepest crisis in history.”
It was a perfect example of the new libertarian president's double discourse of polarization and unity, hate and love, the latest example of a new far-right movement that is gaining political space throughout Latin America.
After receiving the presidential sash from the former center-left president Alberto Fernández, Milei gave his first presidential speech from the steps of the grandiose Congress building, an architectural pastiche of the end of the 19th century, the era of glory that Milei nostalgically reinvents.
“They have left us in ruin (...), the challenge is titanic (...), but today a new era of prosperity begins,” declared while King Felipe VI and other heads of state, such as Gabriel Boric, of Chile, sitting on the podium, visibly suffered under a sun of justice.
In his speech, he praised the liberal era after Argentina's independence in the early 19th century, which gave way to “the most impressive economic expansion in history.”
Since then, “it has been 100 years of waste,” he added, referring to the supposed vice of “collectivism.” Milei did not stop at the waste of the 50,000 million dollars that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lent to Argentina starting in 2015 during the government of former president Mauricio Macri, now the strategic ally of the new president.
Denouncing a camouflaged hyperinflation, Milei announced that “no government has received a worse inheritance than us.” “Sons of bitches!” Thousands of followers of the libertarian president who were listening in the square responded shouting.
Then, Milei broke the bad news: “I prefer to give you an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable lie (...) There is no alternative to shock (economic shock therapy); gradualism is not possible because there is no money,” she said.
Delivering the speech before the “people” instead of within Congress was a maneuver worthy of classic Peronism. But Milei is already forgiven for any populist tic because he is in the same package as a draconian liberalization plan.
“Milei is a populist because of his anti-elite speech; in economic policy, no,” said a former IMF director before the elections. According to leaks to the newspaper Clarín, Milei wants to freeze state spending, gradually cut energy and transportation subsidies, privatize public companies and let the dollar appreciate.
But populism also resides in the simplistic economic recipes of Milei, who disseminated his ideas in a stand-up comedy show in a theater on Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires before being elected deputy in 2021. “When he talks about the adjustment that falls "Only about the State, it refers to the politicians who earn twice as much as I do," said Brandon, a 21-year-old Customs worker.
The reality is that the most vulnerable Argentines will bear the brunt of the adjustment, as the economist Matías Vernengo, based in the United States, explained yesterday. “This is not new; It is the fourth neoliberal adjustment and it will be brutal. “Poor Argentina!”
Curiously, there were those who came seeking old-style favors. “We are here to ask the president for help because the situation is difficult,” said a volunteer firefighter from a group waiting on Mayo Avenue with yellow helmets.
For many Argentines who already sense the coming storm, the president's spiritual messianism – who communicates with his dead mastiff for advice – helps more than his economic science lessons for beginners. “May the forces of heaven be with us!” he said at the end of his speech.
A taxi driver summed up the sentiment on the street: “We have had many sane presidents; Let's see if a crazy person can do it better."
After the speech, Milei traveled in an old Mercedes convertible to the Casa Rosada, passing in front of the anti-Peronist graffiti from the electoral campaign and the plaques paying tribute to those who disappeared during the dictatorship, vandalized by the young people of the libertarian movement.
Milei intends to quickly liberalize a heavily regulated economy and knows that the first impact would be an accelerated depreciation of the peso and an uncontrolled rise in inflation.
The IMF has shown itself willing to support. But the Argentine president's admiration for Donald Trump does not go unnoticed by the Biden Administration. Jay Shambaugh, a senior US Treasury official, warned Saturday in Buenos Aires: “The IMF must be willing to withdraw from a country that does not take the necessary measures.”
The coincidence of the inauguration of Milei and his vice president, Victoria Villarruel, with the 40th anniversary of Argentine democracy is a significant accident of history. Villarruel – a Catholic ultraconservative who defends the impunity of military torturers – “she wants to create an Argentine Vox,” said a former advisor of hers who met with Vox leaders in Buenos Aires. At the moment there is a strong rupture between her and Milei.
Milei's meetings with Jair Bolsonaro, former ultra-conservative president of Brazil, and his son Eduardo, José Antonio Kast, the leader of the Chilean extreme right; Viktor Orbán, president of Hungary; Santiago Abascal and other Vox leaders confirmed the importance of the event for the international right.
But Milei's ultraliberalism – who has criticized institutions such as marriage – makes ultras like Orbán, Abascal and Villarruel uncomfortable.
