Argentina presidential candidate Javier Milei, center, arrives to present his book "The End of Inflation" at the Buenos Aires book fair in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, May 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Natacha Pisarenko (AP)
Shouting "lefties are afraid," Milei drew a crowd last Sunday at one of the most anticipated events of the Buenos Aires Book Fair. The night didn't seem to be for celebrations. On Sunday there were also elections in three provinces of the country and his party barely figured. The only candidate who joined, an evangelical pastor who ran for governor in Tierra del Fuego, came third with just 7% of the electoral roll, three times less than the blank votes. As the count was over, the libertarian congressman, who leads in many presidential polls in Argentina, presented a book to a packed room that went crazy as soon as he walked through the door. Milei had given up two weeks ago to support candidacies in the provinces due to lack of resources and his few candidates evaporated into thin air. It didn't matter. His party is seeking to focus on the biggest battle: the August primaries and the October presidential election.
Along the lines of Jair Bolsonaro or Donald Trump, Milei's proposals to eliminate the Central Bank to dollarize the economy, privatize state companies, or free the sale of arms – and that of organs – have marked the public debate in recent months. On Tuesday night, a lawyer posted excerpts of her government program on Twitter and the proposals became the big topic of debate. The end of legal abortion and sex education in schools, a paid public health system, or the union of the Security and Defense systems so that the Army has a greater deployment in the national territory are some of the workhorses of a candidate who jumped from television to Congress in just four years and today seduces a third of Argentines.
La Libertad Avanza, the incipient party that faces the Argentine ultra-right, presented itself on May 10 before the electoral justice to be recognized as a legal person. The electoral debate is burning in Argentina, but with the August primaries as the first horizon in sight, no programs have yet been defined. Milei's came to light because it was included among the documents that were presented before the court in charge of giving personality to his party.
"There is no more time, that is why we propose the structural change that Argentina needs today to become a power again," says Milei's program. La Libertad Avanza proposes a historical review of an Argentina that was a "promised land" of European migration in the nineteenth century, which "was maintained thanks to the effort, work and motivations of social ascent of its working middle class", to a country that Milei considers destroyed by "the populist and totalitarian governments that marked the change of era of the middle of the last century and contributed to the relaxation of that methodology of life and work".
The far-right candidate proposes a three-stage plan to promote "a sharp cut in public spending," which includes privatizing state enterprises, eliminating subsidies and cutting pension spending to promote a private system, like the one that ruled in the nineties and dismantled Kirchnerism. In Health and Education, two flags of the Argentine State that under his government would form a joint ministry, Milei plans to start charging for services provided by public hospitals and implement a system of "educational checks" to stop funding the Ministry of Education and that parents invest the money in private schools. The free sale of firearms and the transition to a public-private prison system that would be militarized until the turnaround is complete, are some of his security proposals.
Milei also proposes a labor reform that eliminates compensation for seniority, repeal the rural land law that prevents selling to foreigners plots that have important water sources or that are in border security zones, "protect the child from conception" and collect medical expenses from foreign residents who demonstrate economic solvency.
To reverse the economic crisis that Argentina is suffering, Milei's priority will be to "immediately release all exchange rate traps" and eliminate export withholdings. His star idea of "burning" the Central Bank to eliminate the Argentine peso would only come after the end of a projected 35-year plan.
A party without a national structure to fight for the presidency
Milei rebounds in the polls even in spite of himself. The Argentine far-right candidate is gaining popularity by shouting to "kick the ass" out of "the political caste", but the lack of a national structure for his party has led him to form alliances with old acquaintances throughout the country. Among them Ricardo Bussi, legislator of the province of Tucumán, son of a repressor of the military dictatorship and professional politician since 1987; or the deputy of La Rioja Martín Menem, nephew of former neoliberal president Carlos Saúl Menem and son of another historical legislator of his province. Menem was also the second provincial gubernatorial candidate supported by Milei in the eight elections the country has seen since April. He came third with 15.56% of the vote.
The latest addition to his lists has been that of his partner in Congress, lawyer Victoria Villarruel, as his vice presidential candidate. Daughter and granddaughter of soldiers, Villarruel came to light as a defender of the military accused of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship. "We must inevitably reform the national defense law so that the military can operate within the territory," he defended this week in a television interview with Milei. According to the latest polls, they are among the favorites to lead the open primaries to be held in August, while the ruling Peronism and the center-right opposition still define their candidates.
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