Argentina’s Trump Javier Milei wants to allow organ donation

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Argentinas Trump Javier Milei wants to allow organ donation
The “madman” Javier Milei challenges with controversial proposals to turn around the crisis-ridden country

Updated 21.27 | Published 21.25

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BUENOS AIRES. He is the climate and dictatorship denier who wants to ban abortions and solve poverty by allowing organ sales.

At the election meetings, he starts the chainsaw and poses as Leatherface in the “Chainsaw Massacre” – to show how he intends to cut government spending.

Today the “madman” Javier Milei can become the new president of Argentina.

During Saturday evening, alcohol sales were prohibited in the Argentine capital.

– It is because of the election. It has always been that way. Maybe because you don’t want it to be rowdy, or because people aren’t too hungover to go and vote, says the bartender at the local bar, which for once gets to close early on a Saturday.

Because voting is mandatory. Otherwise, you risk a fine. This has historically led to high voter turnout. At the last election in Argentina, in 2019, roughly 80 percent of those eligible voted.

Fines if you don’t vote

full screen Javier Milei could become Argentina’s new president Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP

But the actual fine is low. At most, the equivalent of 7 kroner, the same as a liter of milk costs in the shops, or half of what the classic breakfast, a coffee and two pastries, costs in the cafes in the capital’s central quarter.

At least today. Tomorrow the price will be higher.

And that is also what the presidential election is largely about: Rampant inflation, at over 130 percent annually, politicians’ repeated failed attempts to fix the wrecked economy, constant accusations of corruption, and a parallel “blue” market for foreign currency, above all the US dollar, because no one dares to save in the rapidly declining Argentine peso.

The longing for change. Quick change.

full screen Javier Milei with his favorite gimmick, the chainsaw that will symbolize how much he intends to cut government spending if he wins the presidential election in Argentina. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP

THE FACTS The election in Argentina – that’s how it happens

  • The polling stations are open 08–18 local time and by law no result forecasts can be given until 21, (02 the night between Sunday and Monday, Swedish time).
  • Voting is compulsory for everyone between 18 and 70. 16- and 17-year-olds can also vote, but don’t have to, and the same applies to those over 70.
  • Around 35.4 million people are entitled to vote.
  • To win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 45 percent of the vote, or 40 percent and at the same time be 10 percentage points ahead of the next candidate.
  • Otherwise, the two with the most votes advance to a second round of elections on Sunday 19 November.

    • Source: Reuters

    Read moreWant to scrap free school and healthcare

    That has paved the way for challenger Javier Milei, who since announcing his candidacy has been described by pundits and opponents as “el loco,” the madman, and compared to America’s Donald Trump and Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro.

    The favorite gimmick is a chainsaw, which he posed with as Leatherface from the “Chainsaw Massacre” during his election rallies to symbolize how he will cut government spending.

    full screen Presidential candidate Javier Milei together with his sister Karina (right) and vice candidate Victoria Villarruel at their last campaign meeting before the election. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP

    Argentina’s citizens have free healthcare and free education, receive large subsidies on electricity and gas and public transport. But Milei, who is an economist at heart, is voting for the state to only be responsible for the military, the police and the judiciary. Everything else must be privatized and paid for by the individual.

    He wants to shut down the Argentine Riksbank and instead use the dollar as the country’s official currency.

    Called the Pope “disgusting leftist”

    Around 40 percent of the able-bodied population in Argentina have so-called “informal jobs”, where you work from day to day and receive the black payment directly in your hand. In this group, Milei has her biggest support.

    Milei wants to solve poverty, among other things, by allowing organ sales, so that the poor can sell their kidney or part of their liver to someone who needs and can afford to pay.

    full screenJavier Milei with his equally controversial vice-presidential candidate Victoria Villarruel in August 2023. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

    He does not believe climate change is due to human influence, has called the Pope a “disgusting leftist” and is anti-abortion, in a country that legalized women’s right to abortion as recently as December 2020.

    Milei’s association with an equally controversial vice-presidential candidate, Victoria Villaruel, also attracts a specific type of voter, those who supported the former military dictatorship.

    The vice-presidential candidate – a dictatorship denier

    Villaruel has made a career as a denier of dictatorship, a lawyer with a special focus on redress, not for the victims of the regime, but for those who were affected by the resistance movement’s struggle for democracy in Argentina. It appeals to those who do not want to know how an estimated 30,000 people fell victim to the dictatorship’s political exodus between 1976 and 1983.

    full screenVictoria Villarruel, the equally controversial vice-presidential running mate of controversial presidential candidate Javier MIlei, faced protests in September when she attended an event to honor those who fell victim to armed leftist groups who fought for democracy during the military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

    Mainly, Milei and his La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Forward) have two opponents in the presidential election, Sergio Massa, who represents the Perionist Party and is part of the left-wing coalition Unión por la Patria (Union for the Fatherland), and Patricia Bullrich who represents the right-wing coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Together for change).

    Challenges the Minister of Finance

    The Perionist Party has been the strongest political force in Argentina since the late 1940s, but Massa is also finance minister in the current government, which has failed to get the country’s economy in order.

    Bullrich was security minister when her coalition was in power until 2019, and the government’s economic policy was not successful then either.

    The latest opinion polls suggest that Bullrich will be knocked out in the first round, but that none of the other candidates will win outright. Therefore, in a second round of elections in four weeks it is expected to be between Massa and Milei.

    Then the question remains: Do the Argentine people choose to believe that the current finance minister can get the economy in order – or do they vote for change, regardless of what that means?

    full screen Aftonbladet’s reporter Tobbe Ek on site at Casa Rosada, the Argentine presidential palace.

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