Javier Milei is the star of the Latin American far right. As the only acting president of the movement, he also attracts attention in Europe, where they see in the Argentine a successful model for taking power. The deputy and president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, traveled to Argentina this Thursday and in his plan to build networks on the other side of the Atlantic, he opened the III Regional Meeting of the Madrid – Rio de la Plata Forum 2024. Abascal celebrated that for the first time “the good guys are united” against “the bad guys,” and introduced Milei to applause. “One of our own has obtained a victory in his own country. And after a year of difficult measures and of promising blood, sweat and tears, he continues to receive the affection of the people,” he said. Milei returned the gesture. “Ideas that have already sunk Argentina are becoming popular around the world,” he said. The recurring crises that devastate the South American country are, according to the president’s reading, evidence of the failure of global communism and a preview of what awaits the world if it “does not embrace the ideas of freedom.” To avoid this, he placed himself at the head of a crusade fueled by “the forces of heaven.” “Not only am I putting Argentina at the top of the world, being one of the two best-known politicians in the world along with Donald Trump, but I am also creating the best government in Argentine history,” Milei told the audience.
The far-right meeting, which ends this Friday, was held at the Palacio Libertad, the former headquarters of the post office that Kirchnerism converted in 2015, a few meters from the Casa Rosada, into the largest cultural center in Latin America. The sign that reminds us that until Milei’s arrival it was called the Kirchner Cultural Center can still be seen above the entrance door. This Thursday, the photo could not have been more contrasting. The concert hall received Milei, Abascal and dozens of leaders of the Ibero-American right, neoliberals, fundamentalists, conservatives and authoritarians of diverse origins. The event brought together some 400 people, including Venezuelan exiles and a dozen Bolsonarist Brazilians wanted by the justice system in their country for their alleged participation in the attempted coup against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Abascal opened his speeches with attacks against the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. He accused him of being “sunk in corruption” and of promoting “the importation of people from countries that have nothing to do with our way of thinking.” He also called for a “more forceful” response against the electoral fraud that the “tyrant” Nicolás Maduro has perpetrated in Venezuela.
Milei, in turn, put together a speech that stuck to the lines. He resorted to the catchphrases that are already part of his brand: Argentina was once a world power that sank because of the political caste and the “enveloped” journalists; the only way to guarantee individual freedom is by shrinking the State; the fight against inflation and fiscal surplus is the battle of his life. “Argentines are prophets of an apocalyptic future that we have already lived, but that the rest of the West still has ahead of it. In the leading countries of the free world, the ideas that plunged Argentina into misery are becoming increasingly popular,” he said. He paid special attention to Brazil, outraged by the judicial closure of the X network, owned by his friend Elon Musk. “There are still degenerates in Argentina who are nostalgic for the Bolivarian revolution. Let’s look at Brazil, where the justice system, which is addicted to the power of the PT, is now banning X, which is nothing other than the public arena, where Brazilian and world citizens can express their voice and express their dissent, in other words, they want to ban the space where citizens freely exchange their ideas,” he said. Listening to him was Bolsonaro’s former foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo.
The audience constantly interrupted Milei, who responded with smiles and the occasional comment. Insults were repeated towards Sánchez, Maduro and Lula and calls for the highest officials of the government of the Peronist Alberto Fernández to be imprisoned. Milei said that he also believed that they should be condemned, but passed the buck to the judiciary. “Maduro out, we want freedom,” shouted a Venezuelan woman when Milei attacked the “criminal dictatorship” of Chavez and the international community that, in her opinion, allows him to remain in power. A Venezuelan flag hung on one side of the theatre, while on the other the group of Bolsonarists displayed a Brazilian one. “Lula, thief,” they shouted from their seats wearing T-shirts with the legend Freedom for the political prisoners of January 8th.
Milei closed his speech with a message to the internal members of his party, La Libertad Avanza, which is embroiled in internal fights that make its firepower in Congress even weaker. The government lost a deputy and a senator a week after the united opposition dealt three tough legislative defeats to the Casa Rosada. “There is no room for personal ambitions, only in this way can we be faithful servants of the millions of Argentines who trusted us,” warned the president. To say goodbye, he recalled that his is a “life or death” battle with a high religious content. “Do not be afraid,” he told his people, “our faith is as great as the challenge we have to restore Argentina as a new beacon of the world. The only thing that matters are the forces that come from heaven.”
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