Pro-freedom shouts rang out on the streets of Buenos Aires on the evening of Nov. 19 as Javier Milei was elected the new president of Argentina.
“Good evening to all the good-willing Argentines, for today Argentina’s reconstruction begins,” Mr. Milei said in his first speech as the country’s next president, just as the counting of votes finished.
Considered a controversial figure, the libertarian won the country’s run-off elections by an 11-point margin—countering expectations—with 55.7 percent of votes.
Mr. Milei takes office on Dec. 10 with the challenging task of taming runaway inflation, a swollen bureaucratic state, and an establishment opposition that’s used to dominating the nation’s politics.
The election victory has shaken the political establishment not only in Argentina but throughout Latin America.
1. The Anti-Communist ‘Ultra Libertarian’
Mr. Milei has drawn attention as an outsider from the beginning of his political career. He’s further right in the political spectrum than any Argentinian leader with as much success in the ballots. He’s an outspoken type who’s tailor-made for the South American public—which has often earned him the “populist” label.A former goalkeeper for the youth team Chacarita Juniors, a well-known soccer club, Mr. Milei has also been the singer of a Rolling Stones cover band.
“A round of applause for Javier, General Ancap!” an aide can be heard yelling as the song ends. “Ancap” is short for “anarcho-capitalist,” reflecting the Argentinian’s proclaimed ideology.
Mr. Milei rose to the presidency after only two years as a congressman. He struck a chord with Argentina’s most passionate obsessions: music, humor, and soccer, while, at the same time, tackling the hyperinflation and political caste privilege that ails its people.
Mr. Milei won the Nov. 19 election by effectively conveying two issues to the public and “confronting the deep-rooted elites,” Roderick Navarro, a political analyst at the Miami-based media outlet PanAm Post, told the Epoch Times.
The first issue is to defeat “the political class that impoverished Argentina,” and the second is to “lead the country with a plan of free-market reforms,” Mr. Navarro said.
The reforms, he said, would “lay the groundwork for Argentina to become a world power in 35 years.”
“This made him a popular—not a populist—leader. It turned him into the man that put an end to an era of political decay in Argentina and started a new era of prosperity, safety, and decency,” Mr. Navarro said.
He taught for more than 20 years as a university professor of macroeconomics, economics of growth, microeconomics, and mathematics for economists.
2. The Economic Challenge
Mr. Milei’s focus on the economy has special appeal at the moment.
Mr. Milei has vowed to tackle these challenges by lessening state interference in the national economy and to potentially add the U.S. dollar as a currency.
Other plans include cutting the number of federal agencies and ministries.
“The state is not the solution; the state is the problem,” Mr. Milei says, as he proposes to cut federal departments to eight from 19.
The 11 dashed agencies include the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development; the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity; and the Ministry of Education, called by him “the Ministry of Indoctrination.”
“The challenge is good government,” Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, Bolivia’s former minister of defense and now head of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, told the Epoch Times.
Mr. Milei will face not only economic hurdles but also strong opposition from “Castro-Chavism,” the region’s deeply ingrained “21st-century socialism” ideology, he said.
“The failures of nonsocialist presidents due to bad governance are several and repeated in Latin America. The change begins in Argentina but so does the conspiracy of Castro-Chavism. This result liquidates Kirchnerism. The defeat of 21st-century socialism depends on Milei’s good [governance],” Mr. Sánchez Berzaín said.
“Kirchnerism” is a label associated with former leftist presidents Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, the socialist-leaning couple who have dominated Argentina’s politics over the past decades. Mrs. Kirchner is the current vice president.
Mr. Navarro agrees.
“Argentina’s new administration has won an electoral battle, but the political caste will keep doing whatever is needed for [Mr. Milei] to fail. If they’re able to sabotage the Milei administration, they’ll build a narrative as needed to reclaim power,” he said.
Some question Mr. Milei’s ability to implement his campaign proposals as a newcomer to the executive branch. Mr. Sánchez Berzaín said the new president will do well to draw support from the country’s moderate right who backed him in the Nov. 19 run-off—including Patricia Bullrich, who was defeated in the first round of the election, and Mauricio Macri, a former center-right president.
3. The Ghosts of the Past
A saying in economics often attributed to Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets goes: “Throughout history, there have been only four kinds of economies in the world: advanced, developing, Japan, and Argentina.”The country has had a unique economic history, swinging from fortune to tragedy.
It’s now nowhere near its former self among the world’s economies. But its rollercoaster ride through history has profoundly shaped Argentinians’ outlook on themselves.
Mr. Milei faces a war over the hearts and minds of his people—but one in which he clearly has a head start after the election.
Mr. Milei’s election is set to wash away long-running political lineages and break away from its most well-established political traditions—especially the influence of former president Juan Domingo Perón, who has been enshrined on the left as a symbol of Argentinian exceptionalism and power.
Perón was a strongman populist leader, ruling from 1946 to 1955, and again from 1973 to 1974.
Mr. Milei’s defeated opponent, leftist candidate Sergio Massa, as well as lame-duck president Alberto Fernández are both described as “Peronists.” A long-running lineage of congressmen and activists share the same label.
4. An Antidote to Regional Socialism
“I’ll make deals with no communist. I’m a defender of freedom, peace, and democracy. Communists just don’t fit there,” Mr. Milei told Tucker Carlson in a viral interview during his campaign.“The Chinese don’t fit there. Putin doesn’t. Lula [Brazil’s president], let’s say, does not.”
It echoes much of his rhetoric over the past years.
“We want to be the moral beacon of the continent. We want to be the defenders of freedom, democracy, diversity, and peace. So we, from the administration, will not promote any kind of action with communists or socialists,” Mr. Milei said.
Reports of anxiety among South America’s leftist rulers were widespread as the elections neared. The region has seen a wave of socialist electoral victories, leaving only three countries not ruled by left-wing administrations: Ecuador, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
“This election means a substantial defeat for the São Paulo Forum,” Mr. Navarro said.
The São Paulo Forum is a regional organization formed by Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 1990 to promote socialism in the region. It united narco-terrorist groups, including Colombia’s FARC, social movements, and political parties.
Mr. Navarro alleges that the group—now shaken by Mr. Milei’s election—has been a political force in the region and a tool to promote crime.
“After Fidel Castro and Lula, [Venezuela’s Hugo] Chávez and [Argentina’s] Néstor Kirchner have committed to be regional leaders for the buildup of a transnational organized crime project, using the structures of states to achieve it,” Mr. Navarro said.
5. Congrats From Trump
As reports spread of Mr. Milei’s lead in the polls and of regional leftist anxiety over his presidential bid, the Argentinian often tweeted about them. “The red caste is shaking,” he wrote, suggesting that his opponents were frightened.
His rhetoric has been celebrated by right-wingers in the region and beyond as an epochal “turn-of-the-tide moment.”
Social media posts likening Mr. Milei to former President Donald Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are widespread.
Mr. Bolsonaro posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, that shows him talking to Mr. Milei by phone on the morning after the election.
“As I told you in a previous message, your work goes beyond Argentina. You represent a lot to us; we are pro-democracy, and we are lovers of freedom,” Brazil’s former leader said on Nov. 20.
“You mean a lot to Brazil, and rest assured, in all that is possible, I’ll be at your disposal. I’m certain God will enlighten you, He’ll protect you, and you’ll do a great administration, for the sake of our countries.”
Mr. Milei has invited Mr. Bolsonaro to his inauguration.
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