During the Argentine presidential run on the network, he made a large deal clipOn which Javier Milei, then treated not rather seriously candidate for the radical, free marketplace right, showed what he was going to do with the state administration. As always twisted and screaming, Milei and you ripped off the board a card with the names of the resorts. Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development? “¡Afuera!” (“Exit”). Ministry of Women, sex and Diversity? “¡Afuera!” Ministry of Education, or, as Milei says, “indoctrination”? "¡Afuera!". The Ministry of Public Works whose card didn't want to peel off? "¡Afuera!, even as it resists".
At the end of the video, a conflict cry: “Let freedom live, damn it!”
In the second circular of the presidential election on 19 November 2023. Milei clearly defeated the centre-left Sergio Massa. For a period after taking office, he had already shown that “let freedom live” was not joking. Of course, it is about his imagination of freedom, that is, the elimination of all public services and civilian rights in exchange for the only law that matters in the eyes of Mileia, namely the law of the free market. And who disagrees with this dystopian vision? ¡Afuera!, even as it resists.
A fewer days after taking power of Milei, he issued a decree abolishing or amending more than 300 rights, including, among others, price control or government to support national businesses. He devalued Argentine peso by over 100 percent, comparing the authoritative course with the widely utilized black market. It's a balcerowicz shock therapy on steroids. To prevent inevitable protests, safety Minister Patricia Bullrich released Regulation strictly limiting the right to protest and empowering the military to drive them forward. Milei, on the another hand, announced that he would send the organizers bills for obstructions.
It's all possible due to the fact that there's not only 1 hope to limit Mileia's fantasy. With a tiny organization and a fight against the “cast”, including the conventional right, the fresh president was to be powerfully restrained in his urges.
However, after a fewer weeks of this brutal experimentation for Argentines and Argentines, 1 can see how insignificant the differences between the alleged "system right" and table tippers can be. Milei rapidly made a deal with the caste, for which his presidency is an chance to realize his own dreams of taking the rights and well-being of most residents.
People had enough.
But first things first. In early November it seemed that Milei would end up like erstwhile in Poland Tymiński State – he will make a large deal in the media, but erstwhile he comes to a real choice, he will lose to a mole with a candidate imprisoned in political realities. Despite his triumph in the August primary (in Argentina now de facto the first of 3 rounds of voting), in the first circular on October 22 he received only 30% of the votes, almost 7 percent points little than Massa. The polls just after the first circular indicated that Massa's going to win second.. Milei seemed to lose contact with reality even more than usual – in a live tv studio he complained that a loud audience would not let him to focus, although the interview was recorded without the participation of the audience.
Everything just changed the support of Patricia Bullrich, a candidate for the strategy right from the Juntos por el Cambio coalition (Together for change, JxC). Milei had already been favored by Mauricio Macri, the 2015–2019 president, and the informal JxC leader, himself being in conflict with Bullrich. However, it was not entirely known how many of the nearly 6.4 million people who voted for Bullrich in the first circular (giving 23.8% of their support) would die for the second round. They were much closer to Mileia, but a large part of the more conservative electorals considered anarchocapitalist a dangerous idiot.
Eventually, these fears disappeared – attendance even increased compared to the first circular (from 76.3 to 77.1 percent – although voting in Argentina is compulsory), and Milei picked up the full electorate of the strategy right. Massa, representing a disgraced centreleft from under the banner of Kirchnerism, was the face of rising poverty, crime and , rapidly losing peso value at over 100 percent inflation per year. His offer was not attractive to anyone but those who voted for him in the first round, due to the fact that the remainder of him is just heartily fed up crisis in Argentina.
Thanks to the Bullrich and Mileia alliance, building a government has abruptly become easy. The organization of the fresh president, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom is on the move) has only 40 out of 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and 7 out of 72 in the Senate. But thanks to the JxC coalition and the assortment of smaller right-wing parties, the coalition has a majority in both chambers.
One could anticipate the strategy right to soften Mileia's plans. It shortly turned out to be out of the question. Yes, the fresh president will collide with reality and neglect to implement everything he has announced. But his coalitions will not brake him. Besides, Bullrich will be liable for eliminating protests in the fresh government. The Minister of Economics, who will implement the "Motosierra" plan (chain saw), named so from Mileia's favourite attribute symbolizing the cutting of state functions, was Luis Caputo, besides with JxC. As president of Congress, he nominated Martin Menem, nephew of neoliberal president Carlos Menem from the early 1990s.
The exit continues
After the devaluation of peso in mid-December, Argentine currency for a while, for the first time in a long time, cost the same in banks as on the black market. But since there are no reserves of dollars in the country, prices began to diverge again after a fewer days. After a period of government, Mileia's black marketplace dollars are again more costly than the authoritative course – by 1 third.
In December prices in Argentina increased by 25.5% compared to November. That's twice as much inflation as last month. Over the year prices increased by more than 210 percent faster than in Venezuela. In response, the Central Bank (who Milei wants to eliminate) announced that it would print fresh bills with denominations of 10 and 20,000 pesos (10 and $20 at the current rate, though most likely much little soon). Until now, the highest denomination was 5,000 pesos, so citizens were increasingly carrying wallets stuffed with thick files of worthless banknotes.
These are the first signs of what awaits Argentina under the regulation of a fanatic who considers the state to be the origin of all evil. Of course, Milei claims that if it wasn't for him, it would have been worse (it is not known on what basis), although he admits that the situation is not ideal. He blames his predecessors, of course, and claims that the fruits of his reforms will be felt for... 15 years.
Following publication of inflation data, the president stated proudly in the interviewThat the Argentine women just don't have pesos, so the price increase slowed down. "No hay plata" – no money – is his political mantra justifying extremist cutting of public spending. The president does not seem peculiarly afraid or at all aware that physical deprivation of people's money outside the fall in inflation besides takes distant from them possibility to buy basic products.
At the same time, it is unclear what long-term economical policy the government will have and erstwhile it will enter into force. The package of circumstantial laws implementing the mid-December decree is stuck in legislature and will not be voted on in the coming months. There are besides likely to be far-reaching changes in the content of the document, although even the right-wing Members outside the government coalition, essential to pass the laws, complain that Mileia's representatives do not take negotiations seriously.
The caste is happy, the courts are inactive armed
For the time being, Mileia's policy comes down to ruling decrees. The president has neither the backdrop in parliament nor the ability to manage a complex political puzzle in Congress. However, his urges are being put into practice by JxC representatives, or “casts”, with whom the fresh president was to fight.
Although Milei gained popularity in criticizing everyone, he was already different from JxC in the course of the run mainly in form, not in the content of postulates. The Macri and Bullrich parties, like many conservative groups, have been drifting more and more to the right for years. In the context of Argentina, this made political sense that the incompetence and corruption of the Kirchnerist left led more and more people to look for utmost alternatives.
Milei's match to this puzzle was a challenge for the right, but besides a chance. Macri himself repeatedly claimed that its presidency from 2015 to 2019 she was not successful, due to the fact that reforms have been halted by social resistance. Now JxC, having a political apparatus and in practice the backbone of the Mileia government, can introduce its political agenda, and the erratic president is simply a cover for the repression and brutality of these changes.
Milei, who entered politics only 2 years ago, did not realize that for many people he was simply a tool to legitimize their own ambitions. Vice president Victoria Villaruel is said to have not spoken since the inauguration (Milei this denies), due to the fact that immediately after the nomination, which automatically involves the position of legislature President, the politician focused immediately on building her own organization in the advanced chamber and does not even pretend to work for Mileia. (Villaruel is an highly dangerous politician. As a lawyer, she defended military defendants for crimes committed during dictatorship regulation in the 1970s and 1980s. present it negates the widely accepted number of victims, and the junta itself bleaches, which Milei does not just do).
The Argentine women are not going to give up. Many of Mileia's extremist ideas cannot be easy stopped – including the release of prices and the devaluation of money, which are straight liable for deepening the crisis – but can inactive be fought against limiting civilian liberties. The largest trade union in the country (CGT) challenged the chapter of the decree relating to labour rights and already in December the court suspended this provision as a constitutional security.
On January 24, a large protest is to be held against the President, although his administration is doing everything it can to prevent it. Bullrich sent the unions bills for 56 million pesos (about $56,000 after a black marketplace course) for obstructions caused during December protests. Caserolazos – typical of Latin America protests during which participants They make sound with empty pots and pans – they become the norm.
Of course, this is not any consolation to the Argentines. Society remains divided – half inactive supports Mileia. 40% believe that there is no alternate to shock therapy, although at the same time almost 3 quarters of respondents He realizesThat the reforms will be mainly paid by society.
Citizens and citizens of the South American country voted for Mileia due to the fact that they did not want Macri, Bullrich and the remainder of the strategy right. Instead, they got a mix of the worst in both groups: shoes, social insensitivity and radicalism of Mileia with political fitness and being embedded in the business-political "cast" of JxC. alternatively of tipping the table, it'll just be giving the table back to the richest.
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Dominik Sipiński – writer on global and environmental issues, especially in Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions. A PhD in global relations at Central European University, Vienna, examines secessionisms, nationalisms and issues concerning sovereignty.
