Muhammad Karam is a final-year Civil Engineering student who also serves as the Editorial Head of the NEDian newspaper.
Introduction
The Argentine Republic, suppressed by numerous dictatorship regimes during the 20th century, recently held its 2023 general elections. The elections in Argentina were arranged in two rounds, the first on 22nd October followed by the second on 19th November, which declared the right-wing libertarian Javier Milei the new president with 55.7% of the votes, the largest since the country’s transition to democracy.
President Javier Milei, a far-right eccentric anarcho-capitalist, was labeled as “the madman” and “the wig” by his legions due to his ferocity and unruly mop of hair. His landslide victory with almost 56% of the votes has been termed a “political earthquake” due to his strong far-right ideologies and his limited political experience. How come an economist, author, and person who disgraces traditional politics can carry an echo of change? The sole reason behind this is the support of young people, particularly young men.
Election Overview
The 2023 general elections saw two of the most contrasting candidates running for the presidency. 51-year-old Sergio Massa, a candidate of the Union for the Homeland coalition and face of the Renewable Front, a Peronist political party, known for following the ideas of former president and military commander Juan Peron. While contesting against him was 53-year-old Milei, a candidate of the Freedom Advance Party notoriously known for his bold views and criticism of Argentina’s political culture, discourse, and even of Pope Francis, calling the head of the Roman Catholic Church the representative of malignance on Earth.
With Argentina’s soaring economic crises and an inflation rate that hit 138% annually in September and is still rising, Millie’s staunch promises in the election campaign including “dropping the national currency, the Argentine peso, and instead adopting the US dollar; “eliminate” the central bank; slash government spending by a whopping 15 percent of GDP; scale back public health expenditure; and privatize some state companies,” came in handy to topple the out-going government.
Who’s Javier Milei?
Javier Milei, a 53-year-old anarcho-capitalist libertarian who entered into politics in 2020 in a bid to “blow up” the system, is often compared to Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. However, no one predicted that three years later, the weird-haired TV pundit would not only run for the presidency but would eventually win it with a soaring majority.
Apart from his controversies and media trials, who is Javier Milei? A music lover, opera lover, and a lead singer of the Rolling Stones cover band called Everest in his late teens and early adulthood. He also played as a goalkeeper for the Chacarita Juniors Association Football team until 1989. When he saw the hyperinflation that Argentina was engulfed during the time, he committed to a career in economics.
Milei closely observed the collapse of the Argentinian exchange rate while he obtained his economics degree from the University of Belgrano. He also obtained two Master’s degrees from the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social and the Torcuato di Tella University. Milei taught macroeconomics, the economics of growth, microeconomics, and Mathematics to economists for over 20 years.
He also remained a public figure on television while being the most interviewed economist, according to the 2018 ranking by Ejes, from where he rose to prominence by citing insults to his rivals, using foul language and excessive rhetoric aggression explaining his beliefs and ideas. However, that became the very reason for his popularization as Diana Mondino, an economist on Milei’s team, once told in an interview that “If Javier combed his hair neatly; if Javier didn’t get angry, would people ever have invited him to speak?”
Milei’s Promises: A Hoax?
With inflation at 138%, the Argentinians wanted an abrupt change, and Milei responded to that call just two hours later after his landslide victory by calling out the out-going government in his victory speech saying, “We want to ask the government to be responsible, to understand that a new Argentina has arrived and to act accordingly. That they take responsibility until the end of the 10 December mandate.”
He also gave an insight into his plans in the victory speech, declaring that he would immediately begin to implement his shock plan, which was replacing the Argentinian peso with the US dollar, making large cuts to public budgets, scrapping all rent regulations, and privatizing large companies, including oil giant YPF and the public broadcaster.
Milei further explained his road towards success by saying “There will be no gradualism, there is no room for lukewarmness, there is no room for half measures, if we do not move forward quickly with the structural changes that Argentina needs, we are heading straight for the worst crisis in our history.”
Before the elections, Milei took an idiosyncratic approach to his campaign by putting forward policies that almost entirely contradicted those of his opponents. Some of them were his pledged welfare handouts and tax exemptions, but it seems that he would likely have to take a U-turn on his promises as he faces a sizeable budget deficit that stands at 2.4% of Argentina’s gross domestic product last year.
He also intended to continue his gradual fiscal reform policies as the country owes roughly $43bn to the IMF and $65bn to external bondholders from previously restructured debts. Although Milei was warned by his opponents before his win that touching subsidies for utilities could significantly increase the prices, he turned a deaf ear to all the concerns and carried on with his tactics.
He constantly advocated against abortion rights, severely questioned the role of humans in climate change, and promised cultural reforms as he presented himself as an opponent of socialism at home and abroad.
Conclusion
Many experts have cited their opinions, saying that Milei will struggle to implement his more controversial proposals as his party controls just 38 of 257 seats in Argentina’s lower house and 8 of 72 in the Senate. However, his backers say only he can uproot the political status quo and economic malaise that has dogged South America’s second-largest economy for years.
Ultimately, as Argentina steps into uncharted waters with Javier Milei at the helm, the road ahead remains uncertain. The transformative potential promised by the President’s manifesto is juxtaposed against the pragmatic challenges that accompany governance. Only time will tell whether Milei’s presidency proves to be the catalyst for the change the country seeks or an intriguing chapter in Argentina’s rich political tapestry.
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