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Jair Bolsonaro
How can the Argentinians be so crazy?
Wolfgang Hansson
This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.
Published 2023-11-20 20.08
First, I wonder how the Argentinians can be so crazy as to elect right-wing populist Javier Milei as president.
But then I think a little more.
Perhaps they are simply so desperate that every change feels like a hope for improvement.
A few days before the election, I saw a video where Javier Milei with a baseball bat went wild on a miniature replica of the Argentine Central Bank. He hit the construction model so wildly that his bushy hair flew around.
At election rallies, the presidential candidate brandished a chainsaw to illustrate how sharply he would cut public spending.
What I saw was a man who clearly seemed insane. Couldn't the Argentine population choose such a leader?
Yes, they could. But also rye.
But I think the election of Milei should be seen more as an expression of the extreme frustration that the population feels after living for a long time in one of the world's worst ongoing economic crises than as a sign that Milei enjoys enormous trust and great respect. Rather a cry for help.
For those who have a job in Argentina , it is important to exchange the salary into US dollars as quickly as possible. Then hide the money at home in the mattress or, if you can afford it, rent a bank deposit box to put it in.
The Argentine peso is losing value faster than a cheetah can run a hundred meters. Two out of five Argentines are now considered to be living in poverty.
Inflation is 140 percent, the third highest in the world. In April 2020, whoever exchanged one dollar had to pay 80 pesos. Today, the same dollar costs 1000 pesos.
Javier Milei, Argentina's new president. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP
So when Milei was pitted against the country's Finance Minister Sergio Massa, one of those responsible for the situation, many Argentinians threw reason and caution overboard. How much worse could it get, thought 56 percent of the voters and cast their vote for Milei. He is basically an economist and appeared for many years as an economic expert on Argentine television with extreme views. A celebrity that brought him into politics.
The Peronists, a populist movement with left-wing elements, have governed for 16 of the past 20 years with disastrous results. Obviously something has to be done but the question is whether Javier Milei is the right man for the job.
The voters closed their eyes because he wants to ban abortion and calls the consensus of science on climate change a "socialist plot". As well as because he tries to downplay the number who were murdered during the military dictatorship.
Milei refuses to meet the leaders of Brazil and China, whom he calls communists, even though they are Argentina's biggest trading partners. He promises to cut the number of ministries from 18 to 8.
Milei is often compared to Donald Trump and Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro. All three are right-wing populists with many extreme views. But Milei still stands out in the trio with her eccentric personality and erratic nature. Many are questioning his mental health after a number of public outbursts. He is also called "el loco", the madman.
According to a biography written without his involvement, he was abused as a child and bullied at school.
That hasn't stopped either Trump or Bolsonaro from hailing Milei's victory. Even right-wing populist politicians in Europe such as Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's Vox, welcome Milei's victory. Like billionaire Elon Musk who believes that Milei's accession means that "prosperity awaits Argentina".
The question is, however, what happens if Milei really tries to take his extreme proposals seriously, such as abolishing the Riksbank and introducing the dollar as the country's new currency.
Milei's party controls only a few seats in the Argentine Senate and 38 out of 257 in the House of Representatives. He can also count on staunch resistance from the Peronist unions that have long dominated the country plagued by severe corruption.
It is simply difficult to see how he will manage to change the economic policy in such a radical way as he promised during the election campaign.
Should he implement the gigantic cuts in public spending that he has promised, it means that many of the Argentines who voted for him will see their living standards fall even further before possibly reversing it at some point in the future.
Question marks must also be put to Milei's attitude to democracy. Before the election, he repeatedly questioned the democratic process and claimed that the election was rigged to his detriment. Exactly the same tactics that both Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro did before the elections where they lost power but still tried to hang on with undemocratic means.
In an already troubled and chaotic world, Milei's victory hardly gives any hope that the situation will improve.
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