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BUENOS AIRES — A radical libertarian and admirer of Donald Trump rode a wave of voter anger to win Argentina’s presidency on Sunday, crushing the political establishment and ushering in the sharpest rightward shift in the country’s four decades of democracy.
Javier Milei, a 53-year-old far-right economist and former television pundit with no government experience, received nearly 56 percent of the vote, with over 80 percent of votes counted. It was a stunning disappointment for Sergio Massa, the center-left economy minister who is struggling to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis in two decades. Even before the official results were announced on Sunday evening, Massa admitted defeat and congratulated Milei on his victory.
Voters in this country of 46 million people demanded drastic change from a government that had caused the peso to plummet, soared inflation and pushed more than 40 percent of the population into poverty. With Milei, Argentina is taking a leap into the unknown – with a leader who promises to destroy the entire system.
The wild-haired Milei wielded chainsaws during the election campaign and promised to cut public spending in a country heavily dependent on government subsidies. He promised to dollarize the economy, close the central bank and reduce the number of ministries from 18 to eight. His campaign appeal was a slam against the country’s political “caste” – an Argentinian version of Trump’s “drain the swamp.”
Massa is a symbol of this ruling elite – “the king of caste,” said political scientist Pablo Touzón. The career politician sought to distance himself from the left-wing government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, heirs to the populist dynasty first launched in the 1940s by Juan and Eva “Evita” Perón. Along with a grassroots campaign of activists, Massa sought to stoke fears of a Milei presidency, which they argued could threaten Argentina’s democracy and way of life.
But ultimately anger triumphed over fear. For many Argentines, the greater risk was more of the same.
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“We have nothing to lose,” said Tomás Limodio, a 36-year-old entrepreneur who voted for Milei in Buenos Aires on Sunday. “We’ve had this type of government for so many years and it’s only getting worse.”
A Milei presidency brings the far-right to power in Latin America’s third-largest economy and could have profound implications for the region and the world. On a continent dominated by left-wing leaders, Milei could create tensions with governments he has attacked, including key trading partner and neighbor Brazil. At a time of growing Chinese influence in Latin America, Milei could become the region’s most vocal opponent against a country he once called a “murderer.”
Milei made a name for himself as a television pundit who insulted other guests and showed a tendency to argue with the news media. He has spread conspiracy theories and made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. In presidential debates, he has raised doubts about the widely accepted list of killings during the country’s Dirty War from 1976 to 1983.
He has branded Pope Francis, an Argentinian, an “evil” leftist. Climate change is a “socialist lie,” he says. He would hold a referendum to repeal the three-year-old law legalizing abortion.
Many Argentines ignored the Milei messages that made them uncomfortable. For some, choosing the underdog was a hesitant but strategic decision.
“The thinking is good, since Milei is crazy, perhaps he will rush in like a kamikaze” and implement necessary reforms that previous leaders rejected for fear of being thrown out of power, Touzón said. “Let’s use the madman to make the reforms the sensible ones didn’t want to make.”
For 16 of the last 20 years, Argentina has been ruled by the powerful populist machine called Peronism. The country’s leaders have left a once prosperous nation – but often a volatile economy – in its worst shape in two decades.
“We are living what we could call a second lost decade,” said economist Matías Surt.
For the second time in its history, Argentina experienced ten years without economic growth. During this decade, the poverty rate rose from 28 percent to over 40 percent. For the first time ever, even formal workers in the Argentine economy are below the poverty line. Inflation is approaching the 150 percent mark. The peso has fallen sharply, prices change almost weekly and Argentines are forced to carry around large wads of cash just to buy food.
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With his viral TikTok videos and edgy personality, Milei rallied a generation of young voters who have felt these frustrations most of their lives. Today’s youngest voters only know an Argentina in economic decline. They have lived through a Covid-19 pandemic and view the political left as the establishment and not the revolution it once was.
John Flores, 24, and his wife don’t know if they’ll ever be able to buy their own home. Flores, a nursing student, relies on his wife’s income and occasional odd jobs as a bricklayer or janitor to pay rent and support a toddler. Your money is worth less every day. Saving has become impossible.
“Massa wants to solve the problems he created,” Flores said. “We are tired, especially the young people.”
The question is whether Milei can fulfill his mandate with limited funds, no government experience and few political allies in the legislature. Even compared to Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former Brazilian president, “Argentina will have the biggest underdog it has had in recent years,” Touzón said.
Milei will take office as the “weakest” president in the 40 years since the country’s return to democracy, said Argentine political analyst Lucas Romero. This is not only because he lacks a majority in Congress, but also because he owes at least part of his triumph to the support of a former president, Mauricio Macri, whose support in the weeks before the vote gave him political support and the Credibility that Milei had previously lacked.
His triumph is expected to have a seismic impact on Argentina’s economy in the coming days. His dollarization proposals have already led Argentines to ditch their pesos, causing the currency to plummet in value.
“We’re going to have a bleak week,” said Damian Rodriguez, a 42-year-old salesman who held off putting his most expensive kitchen appliances up for sale online this week, waiting to see how prices would move after a possible Milei victory.
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Veronica Serminario, a 44-year-old public worker, feared that a Milei presidency would leave her country in ruins. In Milei, she said, she sees an “anti-democratic” candidate who denies the horrors of the military dictatorship and wants to take away her and her children’s rights.
“Along with all the other crazy ideas he has,” she said. “I don’t see a future for anyone with this man.”
But for Jonathan Aguero, a 32-year-old, the future has been looking bleak for some time. The father of two, who works in security inspections, has felt disadvantaged by his country’s economic problems his entire life.
“I have three jobs and it’s never enough,” he said, holding his six-month-old daughter after voting in a working-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires. “We have already seen what Peronism has achieved. We need a change.”