A pro-Trump libertarian with no prior government experience and a resume that includes work as a “tantric sex coach” has been elected president of Argentina.
Javier Milei defeated Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the polarized presidential runoff election on Sunday. Massa conceded before the electoral authority released its results.
Massa congratulated his opponent, a right-wing economist who promised an upheaval for the nation and welcomed frequent comparisons between him and Trump.
The Argentine electoral authority later published partial results: With 86.6 percent of the votes, Milei received 55.95 percent and Massa received 44.04 percent.
The country will swing to the right amid discontent over rising inflation and increasing poverty.
It will empower a freshman lawmaker who describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist and started out as a television speaker criticizing what he called the “political caste.”
A pro-Trump libertarian with no prior government experience and a resume that includes work as a “tantric sex coach” has been elected president of Argentina
Milei, who is also a well-known economist and radio chat show host, has spoken openly about his love of threesomes, why he believes poor people should have the freedom to sell their body parts, and how he enjoys it for political reasons Reasons to communicate telepathically with your dead dog advice.
He won a surprise victory in the primary before the runoff, thanks in large part to the support of young voters who have become so disillusioned with more “conventional” politicians that they have turned to a man whose most recent biography is titled “El “ wore Loco or The Madman.
Milei, 52, was a political unknown until a few years ago and was elected to the Argentine parliament in 2021 as a member of La Libertad Avanza (“Freedom Advances”).
He prefers to describe himself as an anarcho-capitalist, meaning he wants to eliminate as much government intervention as possible and leave everything to the free market.
“If I had to choose between the state and the mafia, I would choose the mafia,” he once said. “Because the mafia has codes, the mafia adapts, the mafia doesn’t lie.” And most importantly, the mafia competes.’
His “chainsaw plan” to dismantle the bloated state includes abolishing Argentina’s public health and education systems and closing 10 of 18 government departments.
Milei is also so anti-progressive that he has repeatedly – rather bizarrely – targeted his compatriot Pope Francis, calling him a “damned communist,” “communist idiot,” and “representative of evil on earth.” in brutal social media posts simply because he supposedly supports “social justice” and policies to help the poor.
A recent biography by journalist Juan Luis González revealed that Milei studies telepathy in his free time and has a medium to communicate with his dog Conan, who died in 2017, and ask him for advice on political matters.
“Jesus didn’t pay taxes,” Milei memorably tweeted.
His private personality seems to match the public image of an unpredictable eccentric.
At home, he keeps four 200-pound English Mastiffs. All named after famous right-wing economists – and each of them cloned from a fifth, now dead dog named Conan (after the barbarian).
A recent biography by journalist Juan Luis González revealed that Milei studies telepathy in his free time and has a medium to “communicate” with Conan, who died in 2017, and ask him for advice on political matters.
Milei has not denied the claims. “What I do in my house is my business,” he told a Spanish newspaper.
Not that he’s usually that secretive.
Milei, who is single and has never married, proudly says he used to be a teacher of tantric sex – a slow, meditative form of intercourse based on Eastern philosophies in which the end goal is not orgasm but the pleasure of the process is – and that he could be successful for a whole three months without ejaculation.
He has also spoken openly about threesomes.
As a teenager, Milei sang in a rock band that released covers of the Rolling Stones. He still acts like a wannabe rock star, strutting around the election trail in a black leather jacket and shaking an unruly mane of thick black hair so strange it’s earned him the nickname “The Wig.”
Milei grew up in Buenos Aires, where his father was a bus driver and later a businessman in the transportation sector. Milei claims his parents Norberto and Alicia were physically and verbally abusive to him when he was young. (Pictured: Milei in his youth).
Still, he called Conan the greatest love of his life, an animal he valued so much that during a financially difficult time he survived solely on pizza so Conan would have enough to eat.
Milei’s younger sister Karina, whom he has vowed to make his first lady if he becomes president, is very fond of the dog.
When a political opponent called him “a disheveled panelist who screams on stage and sleeps with eight dogs and his sister” during a debate, Milei simply replied, “I don’t have eight dogs.”
As a teenager, Milei sang in Everest, a rock band that released covers of the Rolling Stones.
He often wears a black leather jacket and shakes an unruly mane of thick black hair so peculiar that it has earned him the nickname “The Wig.”
Milei says he never combs the hairstyle and only his party’s vice president, Lilia Lemoine, an avid cosplayer, is authorized to style it.
He grew up in Buenos Aires, where his father was a bus driver and later a businessman in the transportation sector. Milei claims his parents Norberto and Alicia were physically and verbally abusive to him when he was young. As an adult, he didn’t speak to them for a decade. “You died for me,” he said.
He reportedly had no friends at school and often seethed in notorious temper tantrums.
Milei’s has vowed to make his younger sister Karina (pictured) his first lady if he becomes president.
He later studied economics, but realized that the dry life of academia was not for him.
Then, about five years ago, he suddenly tried his luck on Argentina’s popular daytime TV talk shows – and producers quickly realized that viewers weren’t getting enough of his insane claims about his sexual stamina and his outrageous politics views could get.
Although he was raised Catholic and now reportedly converted to Judaism, his views on abortion are conservative: he wants to ban abortions in all cases except when the mother’s life is in danger.
Although he strongly opposes pro-choice views on pregnancy, he has proposed a controversial “market mechanism” to deal with long transplant waiting lists, arguing that organs are the property of a person to be sold at will could.
He wants Argentina to abandon the peso and adopt the US dollar as its national currency, cut taxes, privatize state-owned companies and eliminate subsidies.
When it comes to foreign policy, he believes his natural allies are the United States and Israel: “I want nothing to do with the communists in Cuba, China and North Korea.”
On the always thorny issue of the Falkland Islands, which Argentina unsuccessfully tried to wrest from Britain in 1982 during the administration of one of its icons, Margaret Thatcher, Milei suggests copying the United Kingdom’s handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Milei’s comments resonated with Argentinians angered by their struggle for survival, particularly among young men.
The presidential candidate of the Liberty Advances coalition, Javier Milei, speaks to a journalist after the vote
Liberty Advances coalition presidential candidate Javier Milei waves after voting, accompanied by his sister Karina Milei (right), in the presidential runoff election in Buenos Aires
Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa speaks to journalists after the vote
Massa, one of the most prominent figures in a deeply unpopular government, once had little chance of winning.
But he managed to mobilize the networks of his Peronist party and secure the decisive first place in the first round of voting.
During his campaign, he warned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to abolish key ministries and otherwise severely curtail the state would jeopardize public services, including health and education, as well as welfare programs that many rely on.
Massa also drew attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and openly questioned his opponent’s mental acuity; Before the first round, Milei sometimes carried a circular chainsaw at rallies.
Milei accused Massa and his allies of waging a “campaign of fear” and walked back some of his most controversial proposals, such as loosening gun control. In his latest campaign ad, Milei looks into the camera and reassures voters that he has no plans to privatize education or healthcare.
“We did a great job despite the fear campaign and all the dirty tactics they used against us,” Milei told reporters after voting amid a major security operation as dozens of supporters and journalists gathered at his polling station.