Milei has stumbled over himself and reality since taking office as the Argentine presidency. His popularity is sinking, but the bloc he represents continues to think that he should encourage him to move forward. That will mean resorting to more repression.
J avier Milei, the far-right recently elected president of Argentina, is unraveling. According to some surveys published in Argentina, since he took office, almost a month ago, his popularity has been declining at astronomical speed, around one point each day. After having won the elections with 56% of the vote, now the majority of citizens, up to 55%, rate his management negatively. A true relegation record when he has only just begun.
Some confused Milei's ability and his media support, to capitalize on the fatigue of Argentine society, with the dream that the leader of Libertad, moving forward, really had a viable, reasonable and sustainable program to overcome the economic collapse.
Their proposals involve liquidating a good part of Argentine society, that which is considered parasitic because it needs subsidies or simple protection from the State, and a good part of what remains of the middle classes, those who ask for quality public services, either by reducing them. to almost absolute destitution, or by sending them into emigration. And his first steps have confirmed his concern among large sectors of the country.
It began by promising a lightning-fast shock plan that would put an end to inflation, but now it places a return to something resembling price stability on a horizon of more than a year and a half. This week he assured that two thirds of the benefits of the measures he wants to apply will be felt in no less than 15 years, around 2039. In his own words: “You see the [consequences] in 15 years. Your children and grandchildren are going to live wonderfully well.” No wonder the citizens begin to turn their backs on him; he promises them suffering for the rest of their lives.
Among its proposals is the practical freezing of the income of many citizens, starting with pensioners. The omnibus law that he has presented includes the repeal of the quarterly update of pensions, leaving it at the discretion of the government. A critical issue if one takes into account that Argentine inflation is estimated to have closed December at around 30% monthly. That is to say that in one quarter it will appear at 100%. Not updating them means a loss of purchasing power of 50% every three months. Hell for retirees.
Other regulations with telluric effects refer to housing rental legislation, which strips tenants of a large part of their rights; the repeal of labor legislation, imposing a new model that aims to liquidate the presence of unions and that has been paralyzed by the courts; the total liberalization of imports, which threatens to completely destroy the scarce national production.
To get an idea of what is underway, Milei wants to reduce the Argentine public deficit to zero from 5% to zero, while in Spain the government of Mariano Rajoy, embarked on austerity policies during the last financial crisis, never managed lower it by just over one point each year. Perhaps for this reason, the Galician has become an admirer of the Argentine to the point of giving him his support in the electoral campaign.
Milei's plan also includes a tax amnesty of dubious effectiveness to bring to light the enormous amount of assets and capital that the wealthiest part of Argentine society has kept hidden abroad for generations.
But the package of measures exceeds the merely economic ones, even though these are of enormous importance and extend to trying to proclaim a state of "public emergency in economic, financial, fiscal, pension, security, defense, tariffs, energy, health, and administrative matters." And social". The president intends for Congress to commit harakiri and approve this granting of exceptional powers, that is, for him to renounce his task of controlling the executive, so that they are in force for two years, extendable for two more; that is, the entirety of his mandate. Milei seems to be clear that the problem is the Argentines and their representatives and has chosen to do everything without counting on them; or against them.
In the context of loss of social support, the solution is to rely increasingly on repression.
It is no coincidence that this plan has been compared to the so-called enabling law that Adolf Hitler had the Reichstag approve in March 1933 and which granted him full powers; He built his dictatorship on her. Although fortunately for her fellow citizens, Milei does not enjoy the political strength that the Nazi leader had.
Milei came to the campaign supported by a media wave that was as programmed as it was artificial, at the service of a small group in favor of forceful solutions. And she won it despite her inconsistency and her contradictions, with a threatening and arrogant tone. She presented herself as the brave one capable of hitting the table, insulting and shouting more than the other candidates; drowned in hatred towards those who were not like him. Offering simple, even vindictive, solutions to complex problems; something that the most desperate people buy when they can't take it anymore. And the Argentines might think that, given his recent history, he was going to be no worse than his predecessors. But they are already beginning to think that they were wrong.
In any case, the problem is that the dramatic operetta that is being performed in the Casa Rosada has the complete support of 40% of the country. Among them are the well-to-do who think that Milei can be the bulldozer that applies the most drastic policies, which they themselves could not implement when they governed, and then disappear from the scene. That is the case of figures like former president Mauricio Macri, one of Milei's key supporters.
And although Milei's decline in popularity announces that his decline is near, his capacity to aggravate the Argentine social crisis remains very high. Surrogate policy operations have sinister historical antecedents. It is not easy to return the beast to the fold once it has been let loose.
