Javier Milei: the hug and the newspaper library

Almost no politician or public figure passes the newspaper library test on social networks.

The scope of everyone's past is different, as is the exposure of their ideas, thoughts or outbursts.

A ruler and the leaders of a party have the right to change their opinion, strategy, rectify and even recant.

But there are cases in which the reversal is as surprising, sometimes outrageous, as the rhetorical hyperbole was at the time.

The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, went from a barrage of insults to Pope Francis to a hug days ago.

He did it in front of the cameras, in the Vatican.

The photograph of his first meeting with the Pontiff, after the canonization of

Mama Antula,

the first Argentine saint, was a milestone precisely because of the hatred that the far-right economist had exhibited in his long career towards the Casa Rosada.

“Dedicated to you, left-handed son of a bitch who is preaching communism around the world.

You are the representative of the evil one in the house of God.

"Long live freedom, damn it!" Milei snapped in 2018 on what was then Twitter - now X - when quoting a passage from the Gospel according to Saint Luke.

It is just one example that, in addition to bad education and disregard for the most basic rules of dialogue, demonstrates how far the current president was at that time from any hypothesis of governing.

Those words are located in a place where everything is permitted and that place, presided over by anger or exaltation, has nothing to do with a serene political project.

How do we manage to believe people who tell someone what @JMilei said to @Pontifex_es and two years later they embrace laughing?

Everything that happens to us is "our" fault.

pic.twitter.com/s63lP9QtFO

— Martín Caparrós (@martin_caparros) February 11, 2024

The question asked by the writer and journalist Martín Caparrós is crucial for this contract between citizens and their representatives.

“How do we manage to believe people who tell someone what Milei told the Pontiff and two years later they laugh?

"Everything that happens to us is 'our' fault."

The thaw had begun on November 21, after the victory of the ultra leader.

Francisco called him by phone and the president-elect invited him to visit Argentina.

During that meeting, which was followed by an audience of more than an hour, the Pope asked him if he had cut his hair and he replied: “I tidied it up.”

I can give you a hug?"

Exciting talk between Milei and Pope Francis 🥹 pic.twitter.com/KsOuZ8c7nn

— Milei Abrazo 56% (@MileiAbrazoo) February 11, 2024

The private conversation, as reported, addressed the economy and the crisis that is suffocating Argentines, with year-on-year inflation that last week exceeded 254%.

Milei, who has not commented on his contradictions, arrived in Rome from Israel, a country that he proclaimed, along with the United States, as his main international ally.

During the campaign he contemplated converting to Judaism and now he wanted to crown that relationship in the middle of the war with Hamas.

“I want my presence to be the ratification of everything I have been saying, not only recently or since October 7, but from my historical position of support and friendship towards Israel,” he stated during a meeting with the president. Isaac Herzog.

pic.twitter.com/OHS4nWejpN

President @Isaac_Herzog receives the President of #Argentina, @JMilei, in Jerusalem:

"The Jewish people and the State of Israel will always remember who were by our side in these terrible times. And you are, clearly, one of the most…

— Ambassador Gali Dagan (@galida12) February 6, 2024

Upon his return to Buenos Aires, he was greeted with yet another controversy fueled by his outbursts.

The president and his followers promoted an attack against the actress and singer Mariana

Lali

Espósito, an open opponent.

Milei called her a “parasite” and “Lali deposit” and the pop diva responded with a long post, remembering that she has worked on television since she was 10 years old, and rejecting “the lack of respect and senseless disqualification.”

In this case, it is much more unlikely that the president's contempt would lead to a friendly photo.

These are the balances of politics.

Mr. President @JMilei

My name is Mariana Esposito, I was born in Patricios Park, in the south of the city of Buenos Aires.

I am 32 years old and have been working for 22 years.

I started working at 10 years old in Television.

In those years I had the joy of participating in series and shows with a…

— Lali (@lalioficial) February 15, 2024