The Argentines’ desire for change prevailed over their fear of the unknown.
Libertarian economist Javier Gerardo Milei won the November 19 elections and this Sunday took office as the 12th president of Argentina since the restoration of democracy in 1983.
Despite his controversial promises to kick out politicians, cut spending, dollarize the economy and blow up the Central Bank, the extravagant and controversial outsider got the support of 55.7% of voters compared to the 44.3% garnered by his rival, the Peronist Sergio Massa.
But what is known about the president, where he comes from and who his closest confidants are. We answer these and other questions below:
1. Between blows and contempt
Milei was born on October 22, 1970 in the city of Buenos Aires and grew up in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Devoto in a middle-class family.
His father, Norberto Horacio Milei, 78, was a bus driver and later took ownership of seven transportation lines. For her part, her mother, Alicia Luján Lucich, 73 years old, is a housewife.
From a very young age, the current president-elect gained a reputation as an eccentric and proof of this is that his classmates at Cardenal Copello school began to nickname him El Loco, for how he dressed, what he said and how he behaved. This nickname has accompanied him since then.
Like a good part of his compatriots, Milei is a soccer fan, going so far as to play as a goalkeeper for Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors, in the second division.
However, what really marked his childhood was the mistreatment he received from his parents, as he himself admitted.
According to him, it all began on April 2, 1982, while he was watching on television how de facto president Leopoldo Galtieri announced the landing of Argentine troops in the Malvinas/Falklands Islands, under the control of the United Kingdom.
Milei, who was 11 years old at the time, told her father that she thought it was the decision of the military government a “delirium” due to the unequal relationship of forces between one army and another.
“My father was seized with a fit of rage. He started punching and kicking me. He kicked me throughout the kitchen,” Milei recalled in an interview five years ago.
The incident, however, was not an isolated event, although it would change over time, said the now president-elect.
“When I grew up [mi padre] He stopped hitting me to inflict psychological violence. He always told me that I was rubbish, that I was going to die of hunger.”, he commented.
His mother’s treatment of him was not much better.
“Your sister is like this because of you”If he dies, it’s your fault,” he said his mother once told him, because his sister Karina suffered a shock when she witnessed one of the beatings she received from her father.
Milei asserted that these humiliations made him “not afraid of anything” today.
2. His sister, his main support
Despite the bad relationship with her parents, Milei maintains a close bond with her younger sister, Karina Milei, whom those close to the president nickname The Boss, in masculine terms.
“Without her none of this would have been possible.”declared in his first speech as soon as he learned of his victory at the polls, in which he thanked him for all his support.
The president has compared the bond that unites him with Karina with that of the prophet Moses and his brother Aaron:
“Moses was a great leader, but not a great popularizer. God sent Aaron to communicate. “I am to Kari what Aaron is to Moses.”
Although he defines himself as Catholic, Milei has attacked Pope Francis, whom he called “the representative of evil on Earth” who “has an affinity for murderous communists.”
From his personal life, it is known that He is a rock lover and he led the band “Everest”, which was dedicated to covering songs by The Rolling Stones. He also says that he is passionate about opera.
He is single and has no children, although he considers his dogs as such: Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas, whom he named in honor of the liberal economists Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas.
“I thank my four-legged children for their victory.”he said after winning the August primary, referring to his mastiffs, copies of a dog named Conan created in a laboratory in upstate New York.
Milei’s relationship with her dogs has given us something to talk about. The unauthorized biographer of the president, Juan Luis González, in his book “El Loco”, assures that Milei maintains communication with his deceased pet through a medium.
The only two known girlfriends of him are figures from the entertainment world: the singer Daniela Noemí Pérez, and the comedian Fátima Flórez, who rose to fame for her imitations of the outgoing vice president. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The press claims that the latter was the one who baptized him as the King.
3. From TV to institutions
In 2021 Milei achieved his first public position when he was elected deputy. However, he already had time in the world of politics, although his adventures did not begin within a party, but on television stages.
The Argentine journalist Roberto García, one of the first to take him to a television program, noticed that it was a man who said “different things from the rest of the economists”.
At that time, the journalistic director of the newspaper Ámbito Financiero invited him to his program to talk about economics and quickly identified that Milei had the ability to keep the audience attentive thanks to his volcanic tone.
“Milei is a Rare avis. Not only is he a person who knows what he is talking about, but he seems to know,” García told BBC Mundo, who assured that 15 years ago no one could have thought that some of Milei’s ideas could be accepted by society. Argentina.
The economist began to promote what he called “the cultural battle,” through which he advocated dollarization and criticized the consensus reached on human rights after the military government of the 70s and 80s.
From television, the economics professor from different Argentine universities built a figure that knew how to connect with the economic anxiety of citizens eager for change.
4. A convinced libertarian
“I am a liberal libertarian. Philosophically, I am a market anarchist.” This is how the current president of Argentina defined himself in 2021.
However, his thinking has been evolving. In the first years of his career as an Economics student at the University of Belgrano, as well as during the time in the master’s degrees he completed at the Institute of Economic and Social Development (IDES) and the Torcuato Di Tella University (UTDT), yesHe considered himself a “classical liberal.”.
However, over the years it has moved towards more radical positions and in 2014 it joined the world of the Austrian School.
“I consider the State as an enemy; Taxes are a hindrance to slavery. Liberalism was created to free people from the oppression of monarchs; In this case it would be from the State,” he declared before starting his race for the chair of the Casa Rosada.
In his first statements after victory he promised “limited government” and “respect for private property and free trade.”
“We are not here to invent anything. We come to do the things that history shows work. We come to do the same thing that we did in the 19th century in our country, the same thing that countries like Ireland did not so long ago. We come to embrace the ideas of freedom, which are those that guarantee the prosperity of Argentines”, he concluded.
However, his stance against abortion makes many hesitate to classify him as a full-fledged libertarian. The reason? Libertarianism not only defends institutional and economic deregulation, but also that related to the more individual and personal sphere.
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