Just over a month before he was elected Argentina’s next president, Javier Milei’s supporters listened with fascination as the self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” and tantric sex expert promised to take a “chainsaw” to the “parasitic” state.
Milei, an Anglophile with an Austin Powers haircut and outsized sideburns who once fronted a Rolling Stones tribute band, basked in the crowd’s admiration that day, waving his arms frantically like a conductor in time with the song. singing.
“We’re going to kick them out of their office immediately,” he shouted.
Occasionally, an audience of thousands in the cavernous conference center on the outskirts of the Argentine capital interrupted the libertarian economist’s anti-establishment tirade with chants of: “The caste is afraid.”
It was this term that 53-year-old Milei used during his campaign to dismiss the entire ideological spectrum of traditional politicians, from the Argentine equivalents of Corbynistas to the European Research Group.
He blamed them all equally for a collapsing economy in a country that a century ago was one of the richest in the world, exporting vast quantities of grains, wool and beef. Inflation is now over 120 percent and the poverty rate is 40 percent.
The radical outsider promised “the reconstruction of Argentina” when he was elected on Sunday evening. But many Argentinians remained deeply concerned about their country’s future.
Their concerns stemmed partly from Mr. Milei’s extreme views on deregulation and privatization – he has proposed a free market for human organs and even unwanted babies – but also from the erratic personal style of the man seen as a lifelong loner .
They wonder whether he has the temperament to lead the troubled society of 46 million people.
“Absolutely not,” said Juan Luis González, a leading journalist and author of El Loco, an unauthorized biography of Mr. Milei, when asked earlier this year whether Mr. Milei was qualified to be president.
“I am very concerned about his political ideas, which I think are simply not feasible in Argentina. But I worry about it a lot less than Milei’s emotional instability. If he’s angry on TV, it’s not an act. He’s really angry.”
Who is ‘El Loco’?
Based on anonymous interviews with Mr. Milei’s personal contacts, El Loco is full of startling revelations, including that the candidate hears “voices,” believes God told him to enter politics, and talks to his dead English mastiff, Conan – named after Conan the Barbarian – through a medium.
Mr. Milei did not respond to El Loco. But his campaign dismissed the book as “lies” designed to damage his chances. Nevertheless, The Telegraph verified one of El Loco’s sensational allegations, confirming with the Massachusetts-based company Perpetuate that it had cloned Conan, resulting in Mr. Milei’s four current English Mastiffs.
One of them is named Milton and another Friedman, after the scholar who helped found the neoliberal school of economics.
Despite being a polite free-market nerd in private, Mr. Milei has consistently spouted profanities and hyperbolic epithets on stage. Highlights included calling a female journalist an “ass” and accusing fellow countryman Pope Francis of being an “imbecile” and “representative of evil on earth.”
The son of a bus driver and a housewife, Mr. Milei’s childhood in Palermo’s bohemian Buenos Aires neighborhood was, by his own admission, an unhappy one. He was routinely humiliated by his father, Norberto, and bullied at school. His mother, Alicia, was cold and unloving, he has said.
The only saving grace was his sister Karina, with whom he is very close and who is expected to be his first lady.
Mr. González tells the story of Karina who fainted and had to be taken to the hospital when Norberto once hit her brother. Alicia then accused the boy of almost causing his sister’s death. Although they are now partially reconciled, Mr Milei admits he has not spoken to his parents in ten years.
He eventually went on to study economics and briefly played as a backup goalkeeper for his local soccer team, Chacarita Juniors, in Argentina’s second division. He then became an advisor to Eduardo Eurnekian, one of Argentina’s richest men. Mr Eurnekian’s companies include AA2000, which operates most of the country’s airports.
It was here that Mr. Milei rose to national prominence, becoming a regular on TV and standing out from the other economics talking heads for his ability to offend and highly off-topic asides, including claims that Eastern spirituality was making his sex life a had given a boost.
‘There are two sides to him’
Although he became a popular TikTok and TV personality, Mr. Milei has remained a homebody who enjoys being surrounded by his dogs and books and whose social circle is largely limited to his sister. He reportedly had his first long-term relationship at the age of 47. Since August he has been in a relationship with Fátima Florez, a photogenic comedian who impersonates former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“He has two sides: the violent one, who yells and fights with everyone, and the lonely 12-year-old who craves love and approval,” González said.
Still, separating Milei the man from Milei the policy mistake may be unnecessary, given the chaos many fear he would unleash with his plans to dollarize the economy, close Argentina’s central bank and 10 of Argentina’s 18 ministries, and privatize healthcare and education by giving vouchers. to the poor. For good measure, he talks about ending diplomatic relations with “communist” countries, including Brazil and China, Argentina’s two largest trading partners.
“He wants to rid the dictionary of the word ‘rights’, whether it is labor rights, the right to abortion, gender rights or the right to sexual identity,” said Carlos de Angelis, a sociologist who used to work with Mr. Milei on TV popped up. and believes the candidate is “on the brink” of authoritarianism. “For him there are only privileges.”
Dollarization would require an estimated $40 billion, experts say. Money that Argentina does not have and probably cannot borrow. Mr Milei has suggested that the first phase could be open competition between currencies, with Argentines using “gold, Swiss francs or the pound” as each prefers.
“He doesn’t explain how he’s going to implement his policies,” said Tomas Borovinsky, a political scientist at Argentina’s San Martin University. “He keeps saying, ‘We’ll see.'”
One of Milei’s few known friends, Diego Giacomini, an economist with whom he co-wrote a book before the couple became estranged, accused Milei of wanting to be a “king.” Mr Eurnekian has said his former adviser must learn respect and “shut his mouth”.
But despite — or perhaps because of — his eccentric personality, Mr. Milei, who is often compared to Donald Trump, has tapped into a deep vein of public anger over Argentina’s economic implosion.
“Milei follows the spirit of the times,” says Borovinsky. “This image, of a bizarre rocker, with his leather jackets, shouting insults and being politically incorrect, is perfect for this moment. Voters want to punish politicians.”