Libertarians Looking for a Win Somewhere May Have Found Their Candidate in Argentina’s Javier Milei

BUENOS AIRES — American libertarians who have long fantasized about actually trying out some of their policies somewhere may soon get their wish if self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei manages to get elected president of Argentina in October.A devotee of the Austrian school of economics, Mr. Milei, who casts himself as a libertarian savior of his country, wants to shutter Argentina’s central bank, adopt the U.S. dollar as the country’s currency, and slash government spending. A critic of the country’s “political caste,” he says the state is the enemy, and politicians are “parasites” motivated only by their own greed. If elected, Mr. Milei said he will take a “chainsaw” to public spending. In a video introduction to his initiative, Mr. Milei calls politicians “criminals” and “thieves,” and says his plan would deprive them of “the opportunity to steal and will have to work like honest people.”With inflation hovering at about 108 percent annually, Mr. Milei’s disruptive economic measures are sending shockwaves through the country and galvanizing young voters. A video depicting the candidate smacking a piñata shaped like the Central Bank, which was posted on national TV on Mr. Milei’s 48th birthday in 2018, went viral.The stunt underlines his intention to shut down an institution that he says is the primary cause of Argentina’s inflation — the country’s central bank. If Mr. Milei, an economist, achieves his career-long dream of closing the central bank, he says he next wants to dump the Argentinian peso in favor of the U.S. dollar.Without a doubt, Mr. Milei is putting topics on the Argentinian agenda that weren’t there before he announced his candidacy in late April, a political analyst, Juan Courel, tells the Sun. The candidate’s initiatives are part of a growing anarcho-capitalist movement that favors “disruptive” solutions to the country’s problems, Mr. Courel adds. Among a public feeling increasingly unrepresented by the two top political parties, Mr. Milei’s brash proposals are hitting a nerve — enough of one, perhaps, to win him the election, Mr. Courel says.Mr. Milei represents a change of era, 35-year-old Argentinian Jorge Cordoba, who lives in Entre Rios, tells the Sun. For decades, Argentinians have been listening to politicians who promise growth and change but never achieve it, he says. In addition, he adds, while other politicians offer vague promises, Mr. Milei brings “clear” proposals to the public that he explains “step by step.”“I believe in Javier Milei, in his speech and in his team, and that is why I am very eager for him,” Mr. Cordoba says. “I dream of the day in which we can get out of this hole that traditional politics have buried us in and become a global power.”One of Mr. Milei’s wildest initiatives includes a proposal to privatize the market for organ donors. “We can think of it as a market,” Mr. Milei says. “Why does the state need to regulate everything?” He wants to overturn the recently approved abortion law in Argentina, which allows women to receive abortions only until week 14 of their pregnancies. Mr. Milei also favors open-carry gun laws. Under Argentina’s current law, civilians must apply for a permit to own a gun, and open-carry permits for licensed handguns are difficult to obtain.With the peso rapidly losing its value, Mr. Milei’s dollarization initiative is one of the most hotly debated topics in Argentina. In order to achieve it, Mr. Milei says he will need about $30 billion.A professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, Steve Hanke, tells the Sun that Mr. Milei’s proposal might be the only choice for the country. “Given Argentina’s institutions, there’s only one way forward: dollarization,” Mr. Hanke says.“It’s time to mothball the Central Bank of Argentina and the peso. Put them in a museum and replace them with the U.S. dollar,” Mr. Hanke, a former advisor to an Argentine president in the 1990s, Carlos Menem, adds. Menem first proposed the dollarization initiative during his tenure.Mr. Milei’s rise in the polls is partially a consequence of Argentina’s economic crisis, but it also signals a shift in Argentine society toward pro-market ideas, an Argentinian political analyst, Sergio Berensztein, tells the Sun. Mr. Milei is gaining support among many young people, which is a first, he adds.Mr. Milei is achieving a rebellion guided by pro-market ideas, Mr. Berensztein says, bucking the historical trend in Argentina of rebellions being channeled by the left. Traditional Buenos Aires politicians say that Mr. Milei’s “wrong solutions” are ill-fitted to Argentina. “Milei says dollarizing the economy will solve our problems but there are no dollars to achieve this,” a senator, Martin Lousteau, told TV channel La Nación Más. “It’s unfeasible,” he said. Mr. Milei’s political party, Liberty Moves Forward, is running third in the polls, with about 22 percent of the votes. Two traditional parties, the right-wing Juntos por el Cambio, which commands 32 percent of the votes, and left-wing Frente de Todos, with 26 percent, are slightly ahead. Primary elections are scheduled for August, and the general election is in October.Even if Mr. Milei loses, he is already setting up a public agenda, Mr. Courel says, in many of the same ways as other disruptive figures with whom he is compared, Presidents Trump and Bolsonaro among them. They are still influencing their respective countrys’ political debate despite losing elections. “I think [people like Mr. Milei] are not short-term figures, and they have proven to be able to politically succeed despite electoral defeats,” Mr. Courel says. “We should not underestimate them.”

Libertarians Looking for a Win Somewhere May Have Found Their Candidate in Argentina’s Javier Milei

Libertarians Looking for a Win Somewhere May Have Found Their Candidate in Argentina’s Javier Milei

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