Leather jacket and messy hair, Javier Milei is welcomed like a rock star, on February 6, for his visit to Israel, under the spotlight of the international press. Following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, he announces his intention to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. A few weeks earlier, the Argentine president made a sensational entrance at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “The West is in danger”, he then says, calling for a fight against “socialism”: “Don’t let yourself be fooled! Don’t give in to the advance of the State”! Rushing headlong, Milei is doing the same in his country, where he is multiplying ultraliberal reforms at a breakneck pace. To the point that the International Monetary Fund, to which the country owes 45 billion dollars – the largest sum ever granted by the organization – salutes the “audacity” of the president, inaugurated on December 10.
The same day, he abolished half of the ministries, which went from 18 to nine. Forty-eight hours later, he initiated a brutal devaluation of the peso (more than 50%) and a drastic reduction in electricity and transport subsidies. The following week, he published a mega-decree which contained more than 300 deregulation measures, including the end of price controls in supermarkets, as well as the end of capping rents, mutual insurance prices or drug prices, etc. Since the start of its mandate, the big question has been: how will the government – which has only 38 deputies out of 257 – be able to carry out its policy in the long term? Presented on December 27, his first bill, an obese text with a high-sounding title (“Law of bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines”) served as a test.
“In a battle, victory does not depend on the number of soldiers, but on the forces of heaven”: the biblical phrase repeated by Milei during the campaign, initially seemed to prove him right. First adopted in Congress, with the vote “in general” of the text, this package of reforms nicknamed “omnibus law” was then rejected “in particular” during the article by article examination. And this on the day of the arrival of the troublemaker in the Holy Land. It was after posing for the cameras in front of the Western Wall, arms outstretched, and crying bitterly, that the president received the bad news: 12,000 kilometers away, the “omnibus law” had just been passed. explode in mid-air.
“It feels good to see Milei hit a wall”
In Buenos Aires, the exasperation of the deputies had reached a paroxysm. They had been tearing their hair out for more than a month, in the middle of the summer holidays, to dissect this catch-all text touching on taxes, elections, pensions, energy, divorce. After intense negotiations, it was reduced from 664 to 224 articles. Ultimately, the discussions broke down on two key articles: the privatization of around thirty public companies (audiovisual, postal, railways, the airline Aerolineas Argentinas, etc.) and the transfer of full powers to the executive in many areas, in the name of a “state of economic emergency”. Due to lack of sufficient agreements, the text was sent back to committee, that is to say back to square one. Thousands of demonstrators then let their joy explode in front of Congress. “It’s good to see Milei hit a wall! We’ve been losing for so long…” exclaimed that day, retiree Elena, whose meager pension was running out of steam behind inflation.
The problem is endemic. Last year, prices jumped by more than 200%. The country now has the worst inflation on the continent, ahead of Venezuela (185%). Elena takes her electricity bill out of her colorful bag, which amounts to 60,000 pesos (67 euros) this month. “Last month I paid 25,000 pesos! How are we supposed to survive such an increase?” Another source of concern for the retiree: the upcoming tripling of bus ticket prices.
Behind her dark glasses, Ana, a nurse from the suburbs of Buenos Aires, cannot hide her exhaustion. The emergency services of public hospitals are saturated due to the increase in the prices of medicines (+ 320% since December) and mutual health insurance (+ 120%). “This government is not giving us any respite,” she says in despair. “I have the impression of living in the British series Years and Years“, she says, referring to the main character of this dystopian series, an entrepreneur propelled from TV sets to the top of the State. But what screenwriter could have imagined a character as improbable as Javier Milei? Ex-tantric sex coach, sideburns from another century, messy rocker hair, handling abuse and insults as well as his chainsaw which he revved during his presidential campaign, he worships his dog Conan, deceased, with whom he communicates through his sister, the mysterious Karina, whom he nicknames “el jefe” (the chef), not because of her culinary talents – she once sold cakes on Instagram – but because she is his eminence grey.
Javier Milei himself describes himself as a “hyperorthodox libertarian.” Of libertarianism, an economic doctrine born in Austria at the end of the 19th century, the president makes a rigorous interpretation. For him, the State is “a coercive machine which steals resources from the private sector”. His inspiration models? “Moses and Margaret Thatcher,” he recently replied to Wall Street Journal – a bold statement in a country where the “Iron Lady” has been unanimously hated since the Falklands War (1982).
Parliamentarians described as “traitors”
For economist Dante Sica, current inflation is not attributable to Javier Milei, but to his predecessor, Alberto Fernandez, whose management was marked by an “addiction to the budget deficit and monetary issuance”. According to this former Minister of Production under President Mauricio Macri (right, 2015-2019), Milei has more political affinities with this former Argentine head of state than with Margaret Thatcher. “What Macri wanted to do gradually, Milei is accomplishing it in the form of a shock.” But fundamentally, their policies would be similar.
Judging by the composition of the government, the influence of the conservative ex-president is in any case obvious. The key portfolios of Economy, Interior, Security and even the presidency of the Central Bank (which Milei had promised to “blow up”) were entrusted to former ministers of Mauricio Macri. According to Dante Sica, “Argentina will experience a tough period with a significant drop in activity and income. Then, inflation will fall from May-June.” But how long will Argentines, including Milei’s voters, accept this bitter potion? Since the new president’s legislative setback, the trade union organizations, which organized the general strike on January 24, have been enjoying their victory.
For his part, Milei has difficulty digesting this disappointment, which he experiences as a humiliation. Since then, he has unleashed himself on social networks, targeting parliamentarians whom he describes as “traitors”. To make himself better understood, he published a montage of himself dressed up as a Terminator ready to strike. Next to this image, he lists his “enemies” whom he calls “the caste”: trade unionists, deputies, governors and Eduardo Belliboni, the leader of the Trotskyist party Polo Obrero (Workers’ Pole) who filed a complaint. All are in the sights of the Terminator’s laser eye. These barely veiled threats go down particularly badly in a country where, in 2022, the left-wing ex-vice-president Cristina Kirchner was the victim of an assassination attempt.
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