This Tuesday, Javier Milei led his first Veterans and Memorial Day in the Malvinas as President of the Nation with a vindication of the sovereignty of the Islands that are unilaterally administered by the United Kingdom. In his speech in front of the Cenotaph in Plaza San Martín that remembers the 649 Argentines killed in the 1982 war,
he called for a "new era of reconciliation" with the Armed Forces,
highlighted the figure of Julio Argentino Roca and his desert campaign and endorsed his economic plan to restrict the level of the Argentine State to the maximum.
Milei maintained, in front of the military and accompanied by Vice President Victoria Villarruel, that the country "only generates poverty" and said that to be respected by the world "it must be a protagonist in international trade and have Armed Forces capable of defending its territory against anyone who tries to invade it."
The President had a strongly Malvinian message, to the surprise of Kirchnerism, which during the election campaign attacked him for his confessed admiration for Margaret Thatcher's ultra-liberal economic vision.
Although he avoided attacking London in his speech, as Néstor and Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernández did, Milei stressed that his government will maintain the "unwavering claim for the Islands" with which he called
for setting out "a clear road map so that the Malvinas return to Argentine hands
. ”
What Milei is looking for is to return to certain understandings in air communications with Great Britain and the Malvinas, agreements on fishing and hydrocarbon matters and also in agreements for the British to lift the embargo on Argentine military purchases. It is a dialogue that Mauricio Macri had started in 2016, and Fernández aborted.
Milei also mentioned the May Pact and invited the Armed Forces and Malvinas veterans to participate in that agreement. It was part of what she mentioned as the new era of "reconciliation." "We will take the first step of this new doctrine on May 25 in La Docta, where we will sign the May Pact, and for which I want to extend a special invitation not only to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Armed Forces, but also to the Malvinas veterans to be witnesses of the new Argentina".
At the event, Milei made a special request to his team: to be accompanied in every movement by his vice president, Victoria Villarruel,
daughter of Eduardo Marcelo Villaruel, Malvinas veteran, second chief of the 602 Commando Company, led by Aldo Rico, and died in 2021.
For that matter, after the tensions experienced between the President and Vice, and her with Karina Milei, this Tuesday there were hugs and emotion between the one and her two.
Video
Javier Milei's position towards the United Kingdom, 42 years after the War.
The Milei brothers, Javier and Karina - general secretary of the Presidency - arrived heavily guarded this Tuesday morning before 10 in the morning to Plaza San Martín, where the president walked with his vice Villarruel, who looked very moved. Among the invited audience was her sister, Virginia.
In the first line, in addition to Karina, were the head of the City government, Jorge Macri, the only one to speak besides Milei; the Chief of Staff of the Nation, Nicolás Posse, the ministers Luis Petri (Defense); Guillermo Francos (Interior); Diana Mondino (Exteriors). Mario Russo (Health) and the president of Deputies Martín Menem. In the second row, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Xavier Isaac, and the heads of the three branches of the Armed Forces were seen. And among Macri's men today is the Secretary General and Foreign Relations, Fulvio Pompeo.
“For sovereign claims to be heard and respected, it is a necessary condition first that the country and its leadership be respected,” Milei began. He also claimed that "no one" can take seriously the claim of sovereignty carried out by
"corrupt serial defaulters or political leaders who, more than a vision of the country, what they defend is a business model,"
he said in a criticism of what he calls " the political caste.
He said that
“the Nation must be a protagonist in international trade and must also have Armed Forces capable of defending its territory against anyone who tries to invade it. "No one listens to or respects a country that only produces poverty and whose politicians despise their own forces."
At this Tuesday's event, which marks
42 years since the failed military reconquest attempt of the disputed archipelago by the last dictatorship,
Milei sought to give a civil imprint to a ceremony that nevertheless had a strong impulse and recognition of the uniformed men. , and kept all the organizations of ultra-Kirchnerist soldiers and former combatants such as the CECIM-La Plata outside of it. Furthermore, in the afternoon, Chancellor Mondino and the secretary of Malvinas, Paola di Chiaro, attended a mass in the Cathedral with the Commission of Relatives of the Fallen.
“Let us inaugurate a new era of reconciliation with the Armed Forces that transcends this government. An era that pays sincere tribute to its Heroes, giving the Armed Forces the recognition and support they deserve,” he proposed.
Then, when vindicating his admired generation of the '80s and Roca, the President had a turn that sounded like a vindication also of the theory of Civilization or Barbarism. "There is no sovereignty without economic and common prosperity. All the empirical evidence shows that there is no economic prosperity without economic freedom," he began by saying and recalled that "precisely, in economic matters, the presidents of the so-called generation of the 80s did nothing other than what they We propose today: a State restricted to its essential functions and freedom to produce, work, trade and circulate thanks to them." Then he said:
"The main inspiration for our claim to sovereignty is the great General Julio Argentino Roca, the father of modern Argentina".
Video
There were incidents after the President mentioned Julio Argentino Roca.
“ Argentina
was populated, there was order, progress and opportunity throughout the country. From being a land of barbarians, we went on to become a land of opportunities for millions of immigrants who arrived to forge their own destinies
,” he said on the same day that the Presidency is canceling the Native Peoples Hall of the Casa Rosada that will pass to be called the Malvinas Question. It is a similar and controversial gesture as canceling the Women's Hall to inaugurate that of its own Heroes on March 8, International Women's Day.
Regarding the Native Peoples' room, it is striking that when discussing the Malvinas, it is put on the table that it did not have indigenous peoples, neither American nor British, but rather an established population, after being discovered and conquered.
For her part, Vice President Villarruel told the journalists at the end of the event that
they did not recognize the so-called right of “self-determination” claimed by Kelpers and the British.
Milei did not leave out of his speech his 10-point proposal for the “reconstruction of the foundations of Argentina” that he asked all the country's governors to sign on May 25. "The first step of this new doctrine will be taken on May 25 in Docta, in the province of Córdoba, where we will sign the May Pact, establishing the ten State policies of the new Argentine economic order and for which I want to extend an invitation special not only to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Armed Forces but also to the Malvinas veterans organizations so that they can be standard witnesses of the new Argentina,” he said.
He ended his speech with a “Long live Libertad Carajo!”, responded with a similar shout by his parishioners invited to the Plaza San Martín.
The President left quickly at the end of the main event, walking with Villlarruel while the journalists continued to be subjected to a restricted and tortuous corral that made no distinction between the cameras, always dominant, and the reporters who had to witness the spectacle.
There was only one incident with a man shouting insults on air when Milei named Roca
. The security took him out of the Plaza, and the libertarians overshadowed him with their chants.
Several of his ministers also seemed very popular
"Guillermo, Guillermo, don't let up!" They yelled at Francos when he left. He reciprocated with his hands and a smile. To Manuel Adorni, who moves like a true rockstar but without greetings, they shouted "End!" due to the presidential spokesperson's turn on Twitter. And Karina, more friendly because she greeted lively, they asked her for "A Kiss Boss"! "Come on Boss!", as his brother tells him.