The luminaries of the global far right are over The resounding electoral victory of Javier Milei in Argentina which experts predict will turn Buenos Aires into new ground for the populist radical right.
Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro led the cheers after his Argentine ally beat his rival, Peronist Finance Minister Sergio Massa, by nearly 3 million votes in Sunday’s presidential election. The former US president predicted Milei will “make Argentina great again” while the former Brazilian president hailed a victory for “honesty, progress and freedom”. Bolsonaro and Mileista activists predicted Milei’s victory would be the first of a trio of right-wing victories that would see Trump and Bolsonaro regain power in 2024 and 2026.
In his first post-victory interview on Monday, Milei announced he would travel to the United States and Israel, where he has pledged to move Argentina’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, before being sworn into office on Dec. 10. next to his ultraconservative vice. elected president, Victoria Villarruel.
Bolsonaro announced that he would attend Milei’s inauguration in Buenos Aires and posted footage of a video call with the president-elect of Argentina. “I’m very happy,” Bolsonaro told the radical libertarian economist. “You have a big job ahead of you… and it’s a job that goes beyond Argentina,” added the former Brazil leader. “Thanks!Miley replied.
Unlike Bolsonaro, a professional politician who posed as an anti-establishment outsider to win power in 2018, Milei is a true newcomer to the world of politics. Born in Buenos Aires in 1970, he played in a Rolling Stones cover band and he found fame as a badass economic pundit on Argentinian television before being elected to Congress in 2021 for his libertarian party Libertad Avanza (Advances of Freedom). Milei’s mercurial personality, on-screen outbursts with expletives and Britpop-style hairdo have cemented her reputation as “El Loco” (The Crazy One).
From Bogotá and Santiago to Lisbon and Madrid, other ultra-conservative figures expressed their satisfaction at Milei’s landslide victory over centrist Massa, by 14.47 million votes to 11.51 million.
André Ventura, the leader of the extreme right Come from Portugal! (Enough!), celebrated the “struggle to defend society” of Milei i Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League, sent his congratulations. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, said Milei has opened “a path of future and hope… for Argentines and for all of Latin America.”
Hungarian President Katalin Novák congratulated Milei on a “great victory”.
In South America, ultraconservative Chilean politician José Antonio Kast congratulated Milei on his “resounding triumph,” writing, “Argentina’s reconstruction begins now.”
Colombian Senator María Fernanda Cabal described Milei’s victory as a victory for “sanity, sanity. [and] the hope of a renaissance for Argentina”. “Once again, Latin America’s predatory left has been defeated.”
Sergio Moro, the Brazilian senator who served as Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister, tweeted: “Argentina has won two World Cups in a row.”
Ariel Goldstein, an Argentine academic who studies Latin America’s populist right, said he hopes Buenos Aires will become a meeting place for members of the global far right and host an edition of the Madrid Forum, a summit Right-wing “anti-communist” founded in 2020 by a think tank linked to Vox.
As tributes poured in from the right, the scale of Mileus’ victory became clear. The television celebrity turned political sensation beat his Peronist rival in 21 of Argentina’s 23 provinces and came close to winning Buenos Aires, a Peronist stronghold, where Massa won 50.89% of the vote to 49, 1% of Milei.
In Córdoba, where Milei held his last campaign rally, the wild-haired libertarian crushed his rival 74.28% to 25.71%. In Mendoza, the result was 71.42% to 28.57%.
However, despite all the right-wing euphoria, experts cautioned against viewing Milei’s election as a sign of a major conservative shift in Argentine politics.
Yanina Welp, an Argentine political scientist at the Albert Hirschman Center on Democracy, said culture war issues and identity politics may have swayed some citizens, but voters mostly wanted to punish the Peronists for bringing Argentina in. one of its worst economic crises in decades.
“Massa is the Minister of Economy, and the country has done it [nearly] 150% inflation and almost half of the country lives in poverty. So it’s pretty easy to understand the rejection of the status quo,” Welp said. “Rather than being in favor of Milei or Milei’s program, this is [a vote] against the Peronists and the current government”.
Shila Vilker, the head of the consulting firm three point zero, was unsure whether the election had been won by Milei or lost by Massa because, as finance minister, many voters blamed his government for their economic misery. What was certain, Vilker believed, was that Massa’s “fear campaign,” designed to dissuade voters from Milei by portraying him as an emotionally unstable authoritarian crackpot, had failed.
“People opted for change,” Vilker said. “The idea of change prevailed over continuity, overcoming any kind of fear, whether of the known or the unknown.”
That burning desire for change was written around Buenos Aires’ iconic obelisk on Sunday night, as thousands of Milei voters gathered to toast a new and deeply unpredictable chapter in their country’s history.
“I think people are relieved that change is finally coming. The other option was not good, we need change and fast,” said Justine Navarra Beber, 19, who was attending her first political rally.
Roman Neveira, a 23-year-old programmer, waved a large blue and white Argentine flag as drivers drove past shouting Milei’s slogan: “Long live freedom, dammit!” (Long live freedom, dammit!).
“I am very happy and relieved. In Argentina, things have been going downhill for some time. The fact that someone different like Milei, who doesn’t talk like a politician and has big ideas, has come out to do something is giving me hope,” said Neveira.
“The current situation is not easy to fix. We’ll have to be patient, but I’m really excited about what they’re going to do.”
Another reveler, Marcelo Álvarez, proclaimed Milei’s election as a well-deserved repudiation of the selfish politicians he blamed for ruining millions of lives. “They left people with nothing and now we’ve won,” said the 60-year-old small business owner.
Still, Álvarez wasn’t sure what the future held under Milei, a notoriously erratic political neophyte. Milei’s plans include abolishing the central bank, dollarizing the economy and deep austerity measures that many economists fear could further exacerbate Argentina’s crisis.
“Things are going to get better soon or they’re going to go to shit,” Alvarez predicted as the street party erupted. “I hope we didn’t make a mistake and come back here to protest in two years.”
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