I spent 56 days in Buenos Aires, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, covering – by far! – the Falklands War in 1982. Since then, I have been saddened by the disasters that continue to befall the Argentine people.
He didn’t help himself by electing Javier Milei, an eccentric libertarian economist and admirer of Donald Trump who wants to return Argentina to its former greatness. MAGA, “Make Argentina Great Again.” His opponents and even some of his supporters – many among the young men – call him “El Loco” (the crazy one).
Milei campaigned with a chainsaw in his hand. He wants to cut public spending by cutting social benefits and bureaucracy and, among other things, closing the ministries of culture, health and education. He wants to liberalize gun ownership, abolish abortion, which was legalized in 2020, and allow the sale and purchase of human organs.
Riding a wave of anti-establishment anger, this foul-mouthed right-wing extremist Olibrius takes up residence in “Casa Rosada,” the Argentine presidential palace. The so-called “anarcho-capitalist” easily defeated his Peronist opponent, Finance Minister Sergio Massa.
Milei’s party only has seven of 72 seats in the Senate and 38 of 257 in the Chamber of Deputies. Lacking experience and few allies to implement his incendiary political agenda, his presidency risks ending in disaster.
- Listen to the Lester Durocher meeting with blogger Normand Lester from the Journal de Montréal QUB radio :
“Dollarization” of the Argentine economy
Milei promises to “blow up” the central bank. To curb inflation, he proposed liberalizing the monetary system by giving customers and merchants the right to use U.S. dollars instead of pesos. A hundred Argentine economists warn that an economic catastrophe could occur. Additionally, previous attempts to peg the peso to the dollar in the 1990s ended in the worst economic collapse in the country’s history.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina was one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world. Today it is ranked 63rd. The global surge in inflation since the end of the pandemic has caused the cost of living there to skyrocket. Inflation exceeds 130%. The poverty rate reached 40% in the first half of 2023. According to the World Bank, Argentina ranks 113th in terms of country in which business is conducted, an important indicator of economic development.
With 46 million inhabitants, it is nevertheless rich in natural resources (cattle, wheat, corn, natural gas). Despite suffering from a historic drought that has devastated her agriculture, Milei insists that global warming is a hoax.
Photo AFP
So what happened?
The country’s ongoing inflation problems began in the mid-1940s with the rise to power of Juan Perón. Inspired by Benito Mussolini, Perón modeled the Argentine economy after Fascist Italy.
The Peronist economic program, known as Justicialismo, consisted of nationalizing production, setting up customs barriers, strengthening the power of trade unions and increasing wages and social benefits. But Perón’s only way to finance his program was to print pesos, which led to inflation that continues to this day.
Peronism (1946-1955) led the country from wealth to poverty. His legacy still exists in one form or another, despite the succession of various dictatorial and democratic regimes. Good luck to Milei, who wants to eradicate it.
Perón and his muse Évita are still symbolic figures among the working class.
Berlusconi, Trump, Bolsonaro and now Javier Milei. It is clear that the mixture of carnival clowns and politics shapes our time.
