“Long live freedom, damn it!” “ On the evening of the results of the primary legislative elections, Sunday, September 12, Javier Milei, 50, candidate for a deputy seat in the city of Buenos Aires, harangued his supporters to the rhythm of his slogan, synthesis of his ideology, libertarianism reactionary. “I did not come here to guide lambs but to wake up lions! “, the underdog and anti-system economist continued to yell, using this repeated formula in front of galvanized supporters.
His score, 13.66%, has, by his own admission, surprised himself, propelling him, in the capital, as the third political force behind the center-right coalition Juntos por el Cambio, which holds the town hall of Buenos Aires since 2007, and behind the party of the president, Alberto Fernandez (center left). These primaries, which serve as a full-scale survey of the legislative elections of November 14, marked a rout of the latter in most regions.
If he repeats his score on November 14, under the aegis of the coalition “Freedom advances”, Javier Milei will be elected deputy and thus join those he designates as the “Unnecessary policies, parasites, who have never worked”, as he put it in an interview with the World and other international media. His element of language, delivered at will: to finish with “The political caste”, he “Intends to dynamite from the inside”. Coherence ? “If you don’t like something, the best is to change it”, he justifies calmly.
“Anger vote”
Its flagship proposal is to put an end to the central bank, seat of the“Immorality” that he shouts. He is also opposed to capital controls and the introduction of new taxes. While the Argentine government has continued to deploy emergency aid to the most disadvantaged in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the candidate does not intend to renounce the subsidies, but these will, in his opinion, naturally become obsolete with the growth induced by “Freedom regained”, which will allow “Give Argentina back its power”. The candidate denies climate change, speaks out in favor of carrying a weapon and reaffirms his opposition to legal abortion, approved on December 30, 2020 by Parliament. Invited by videoconference during a meeting organized in Madrid by the Spanish far-right party Vox on October 9 and 10, he displayed his rejection of communism.
“Javier Milei is a new phenomenon, observes Gabriel Vommaro, sociologist at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, specialist in the Argentine right. But it is part of two dynamics, that of the growth of the Argentine right for fifteen years, and, in the region, the libertarian movement with Bolsonaro ”, figure that Javier Milei calls himself, just like that of the former President of the United States Donald Trump. “The vote for Milei is a vote of anger”, believes Gabriel Vommaro. However, this is a phenomenon still limited to the capital.
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