In the eyes of many Europeans and Latin American, Donald Trump is a faithful representative of the American stereotypic, a brave, patriot and disdainful being of everything he ignores. Does Javier Milei fulfill the same role in your country? Of course not; It would be difficult to conceive a more atypical character according to national guidelines than the current president.
Unlike Trump, whose amazing political success has been due to his willingness to say aloud what dozens of millions of Americans really think that they feel cheated by the prevailing system that remains dominated by progressives that depreciate them, the popularity of Milei can be attributed to their extreme eccentricity, to the obvious fact that he has very little in common with the bulk of his compatriots. Before his arrival to power, the reduced minority that knew something about the Austrian School of Economics to which he alludes, did not express interest in the biblical stories or what his Canine friends could teach them.
For more signs, of all political leaders in the country, Milei is, by far, the most ideologized. Convinced how fate has chosen it to lead the transformation of Argentina into an anarch-capitalist paradise that serves as an example for the rest of the world, it is difficult for him to treat with respect to those who do not share his ideology. In their opinion, they have to be or stupid or corrupt. Happily for him, almost half of the electorate coincides. While few will understand very well the technicalities that Milei uses when he speaks of economics, many give a discounted that, with few exceptions, the politicians of the pile are as perverse as he says and it is for that reason that they are inclined to support him in October. It is not that everyone feels enthusiasm for what the government is doing but, for now, they do not see an alternative that is clearly better.
In the province of Buenos Aires, electoral perspectives against national ruling are less promising than in the country as a whole. In spite of the efforts of the influencers of Freedom, progress by converting the inhabitants of the most problematic districts of the conurbano into their particular way of thinking, it would seem that only a reduced strip of the population of the slaughter and other equally depressed places has abandoned its faith in the benefits of Kirchner Peronism. For them, tribal loyalty matters more than what the legislators who choose. In his own way, they resemble those Trump supporters who want it just because they feel it related.
In the country, the political weight of the ultra-conservatism of the poorest of the conurbano is limited who, despite the unfortunate results of the Peronist management, cling to what is already known, but in the province it can be decisive, which raises a very large problem to a movement that aspires to replace Peronism throughout the national territory and that, partly by instinct and partly by calculation, it has not taken part modalities that are typical of its main enemy.
The libertarians expected Peronism to be divided before the closing of lists, but unfortunately for them, at the last moment the adherents of Cristina Kirchner, Sergio Massa and Axel Kicillof chose to join under the merely nominal leadership of Jorge Taiana for considering the least offensive of the candidates for said role. While it is unlikely that Taiana manages to cool to crowds, it is to be anticipated that, for the Mileists, it is a less vulnerable target than someone at most Kirchner would have been.
José Luis Espert, the person in charge of leading the libertarian assault on the main Peronist bastion, is usually so sharp, or more, that Milei himself. He says that Kirchnerists have transformed the province of Buenos Aires into “an open -pit sewer” and is affirmed to “dismantle all the rotten scaffolding of disastrous ideas that Kirchnerism has raised” in people’s minds.
In these lides, Espert is a veteran; Well before the appearance of Milei, he acquired media notoriety for his willingness to vehemence key ideas that turned out to be very similar to those who, walking time, would claim with similar passion the destined to be erected in President of the Republic. Like John the Baptist, Espert helped clear the way for the arrival of the Messiah Salvador.
Being so undeniably bad the living conditions in extensive areas of Buenos Aires conurbano after many years of Peronist hegemony, it would be assumed that those who have had to endure would be determined to try luck with something that is radically different but, it is, it is clear, it is far from being the case. For frustration of leftists, radical and, lately, libertarians, many continue to behave as victims of the so -called “Stockholm Syndrome” in which hostages of armed criminals ended up sympathizing with their captors.
Thus, even when before September 7, there have been much more brutal street murders and explode more corruption or sexual abuse starring Kirchnerists, libertarians would not be easy to take advantage of the patent deficiencies of the management of governor Kiciloff and local mayors such as the Matancero Fernando Espinoza. Espert may not exaggerate too much when he alludes to the less praiseful characteristics attributed to those who appear in the list of provincial deputies in Patria Force, but would surprise that their diatribes managed to penetrate the psychological armor of Peronist manufacturing that its inhabitants have become accustomed to carry.
Aware of this unpleasant reality, the libertarian strategists are preparing mentally to minimize the meaning of an eventual defeat in the province with hope, that judging by what the surveys say is well founded, that the national legislative elections of October 26 put things in what would be the appropriate place for them. Given the circumstances, they have no choice, although they can only fear that a setback in Buenos Aires has a very negative impact on both markets and collective imagination.
Since the end of 2023, Milei has benefited from the notion that Argentina has experienced such a deep cultural revolution that it is virtually inevitable that freedom progresses to add epic triumphs in all districts of the country. While affiliates of entrenched parties or movements are emotionally conditioned to absorb temporary defeats because they know that in politics nothing lasts forever and that it is necessary to take advantage of periods in the plain to reorder their proposals, they are not yet Milei and their celestial hosts that, by the way, are not characterized by their maturity.
The very long spiritual hegemony of Peronism who, walking time, would affect the attitudes of almost all, including those who fought it, can be attributed to its founder, General Juan Domingo Perón, managed to present himself as the incarnation of Argentine. Milei aspires to emulate it, but to be successful, he would have to reformat the hypothetical national character, hence the furibly “cultural battles” that is freeing with the support of a motioned set of converts. Although at first glance it seems very unlikely that Milei gets what has been proposed, judging by both national and universal experience, those willing to make his ideas that even recently seemed absurd. As rare for many to seem to them, the Gospel according to Milei is no more hopeful than the Kirchnerist story or the Woke extravagances that continue to excite sectors of Western intellectuality.
Likewise, there is no doubt that the severe economic ideas that claim Milei have already positively modified the political culture of the country. While the spectacular failure of the corporatist “model” had become evident before his arrival at the center of the stage, it was necessary for someone to point out clearly and strongly the reasons why he only generated misery and inflation. While Mauricio Macri tried to get away from the old consensus, Milei understood that he would have to abandon him completely. He also gave a discounted that it would be worse than useless to agree with those politicians who depended on a ruinous order for their social prestige, their income and, in certain cases, their personal freedom.
In addition to wanting to put an end to chronic inflation that, as a degenerative disease, depouted millions, and rebuild the macroeconomy so that Argentina could prosper as so many other countries had done, in 2023 the society asked Milei to, in effect, change the existing political or “caste class.” Will the deputies and senators who are elected in October be better than the replacements? Unfortunately, there are not many reasons for optimism. Bad that many weigh, everything indicates that those responsible for the various party lists privileged the alleged loyalty, that is, their own personal interests, above exotic notions about the eventual suitability of those selected to occupy benches in the two chambers of Congress.
