For many years, the word adjustment so frightened professional politicians that, with few exceptions, they swore that they would never dream of tormenting the suffering Argentine people by doing something as atrociously inhuman as reducing, even just slightly, public spending. They agreed that it was always necessary to privilege “the moral debt” with the laggards and their alleged representatives over the miserable numerical details that obsessed the hateful neoliberals. In this way, “the caste” prepared the way for the triumph of a novice with rabid speech who asserted himself more than willing to violate the taboo that prevented the national political class from managing the national economy with a minimum of sensibility. The consensus was that attempting to do so would trigger a social outbreak of epic proportions.
The power that Javier Milei has accumulated is due to his willingness to apply an adjustment that may not be the most drastic in the history of the human race, as he likes to say, but that has been the deepest that has been seen in Argentina. modern, surpassing those of the final phase of the first administration of Juan Domingo Perón and that of Arturo Frondizi and his Minister of Economy Álvaro Alsogaray. Far from having to pay a heavy political price for the crime against the people that he committed by adjusting, decimating pensions and closing politicized ministries that seemed useless, Milei saw his popularity increase to such a point that it would scare those who attribute to him a project of hegemony comparable to that of the Kirchners.
While some wonder if Milei is thinking about a constitutional reform aimed at allowing him to emulate Carlos Menem who, thanks to the so-called Olivos pact with Raúl Alfonsín, remained in the presidency for ten and a half years, others suspect that he will seek to alternate in power with his sister Karina, thus re-editing the scheme planned by the Kirchners that was disrupted by the sudden death of Néstor. It turns out that the temptation to treat the presidency as a family asset remains stronger in Argentina than in most democratic countries.
In any case, although Milei will have been helped by the caudillismo that nests in the collective soul and the desire of the people for the country to have a strong president capable of making difficult decisions, the magnitude of the socioeconomic disaster that was caused would matter much more, for impudently electoral reasons, by the chaotic government of Alberto Fernández, Cristina Kirchner and Sergio Massa. With their “small money plan,” the trio put the country on the brink of a hyperinflationary abyss from which it would have been terribly difficult to escape.
Milei and many others hope that the experience has served to inoculate the majority against the disease – of which Kirchnerism is a symptom – that just a year ago threatened to transform Argentina into a failed state, and that the legislative elections that have already have appeared on the horizon confirm that “the change in mentality” they perceive is much more than an illusion. Although the politicians, officials, union members and businessmen friends of the power in power who managed to prosper in the corporatist order of Kirchnerism continue to bet that, soon, the people will rebel against the extreme fiscal rigor of which Milei boasts, there are still no signs that many are willing to do so.
In some ways, this being the case benefits libertarians, as the sporadic screams of anger and gruesome threats from the displaced serve to remind citizens of what so many are trying to distance themselves from, but, combined with the verbal aggressiveness of the president and his propagandists, the spectacle provided does not contribute anything positive to the socio-political evolution of the country.
Logically, those emotionally committed to the recent past should be considered the most dangerous enemies of libertarian government. The mere possibility that one day “the kukas” could return to power, as they did in 2019, explains the skepticism of many who applaud Milei’s harangues but do not want to risk investing a lot of money in the country, making one think that it is premature on their part to believe them definitively defeated.
Still, the president and those around him treat them more sympathetically than the classical liberals and conservatives who are very much in favor of the economic reforms underway. They may take it for granted that Pro voters will not stop supporting him for fear that the Kirchnerists will return and that many Peronists, starting with those fed up with Cristina’s annoying presence, will end up becoming libertarians for being pragmatic people who habitually make their own the ideas that are in vogue. It will be a matter, then, of a mix of political calculation and the will of members of La Libertad Avanza to defend the bits of territory they currently occupy against intruders.
Like an entrepreneur who trusts that a new device will allow him to make a lot of money, Milei and, even more so, his collaborators, do not want others to take advantage of the economic formula based on fiscal severity that, until now, has brought them so many good results. results. They are determined to patent it. It is for this reason that they are trying to phagocytize Mauricio Macri’s Pro and his satellites; They pose a threat to the monopoly of an ideology that, in the opinion of many who, in different parts of the world who are observing with growing interest what is happening in Argentina, could help the country leave behind almost a century of decadence.
From the point of view of such Mileists and, presumably, of Milei himself, it would be advisable for the movement they recently improvised to be greatly expanded in the coming months, but they are reluctant to run the risk of being marginalized by women and men who, According to traditional standards, they are more suitable and, in many cases, more committed to the principles claimed by the president than the majority of those who chose to support him when the polls began to smile at him. Within La Libertad Avanza, “the cultural battle” that the leaders speak of continues to be fought; Many militants who have not yet internalized the doctrines of the Austrian School feel more attracted to those of Mussolinian origin.
For those convinced that Macriism is nothing more than mileism with good manners, the constant friction caused by the political gluttony of those who believe they are owners of the ultraliberal “model” that the government is trying to install will matter little, but it carries the risk that the fans of the chainsaw man become so unfriendly that they lose the support of moderate sectors that would otherwise support them because they are the lesser evil.
Issues such as those raised by Milei’s attitude towards democratic institutions, corruption and Justice, are already motivating debates that harm him. There are those who see him as a dictator in the making, an authoritarian leader who is congenitally incapable of tolerating any sign of dissent. There are also those who insist that, no matter how different their ideological preferences, libertarians have a lot in common with Kirchnerists. It is bad that despite those who celebrate what the government is doing to reduce the inflation rate, bring down the country risk index and promote the exploitation of Vaca Muerta’s oil and gas reserves – abroad, some commentators have begun to talk about the imminent emergence of a “Qatari Argentina” – such concerns are legitimate.
Although we are almost ten months away from the midterm elections, politicians of all stripes are already modifying their behavior and attitudes in the hope of getting more votes for the group to which they belong or, at least, of minimizing losses. that they foresee. After all, if, as many predict, Libertad Avanza manages to substantially increase its presence in both chambers of Congress, it will do so at the expense of other parties. Judging by what is happening, the most affected will be those close to Mileism, such as the members of Pro, not the more distant ones who remain loyal to Cristina or her former adopted son Axel Kiciloff.
To preserve their independence, Macri and those who answer to him are concentrating on underscoring their own adherence to republican principles that Milei tends to despise, in addition to pointing out that a formal alliance of Pro with Libertad Avanza could score a shocking victory, and, what would be even more significant, saving a painful defeat in the Province of Buenos Aires. In the Federal Capital of the same name, on the other hand, Mayor Jorge Macri expresses less interest than his cousin in making an agreement with the forces of Milei who, as he knows very well, do not hide their desire to deprive the Macristas of the fiefdom they have dominated for years. , which is why it decided to hold the Buenos Aires elections in July with the hope that they will not be contaminated by the national ones in which La Libertad Avanza hopes to consolidate itself as the hegemonic party, thus assuming the role that for three quarters of a century the Justicialist played.
