BUENOS AIRES — Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian economist, has remained at the top of Argentina’s presidential campaign backed by the youth vote.
To win a runoff on Nov. 19, he must hold on to that key demographic. But now, a big obstacle stands in their way: the Swifties. Squads of Argentine fans of pop star Taylor Swift have set their sights online on Milei and her growing libertarian party, framing them as a danger to Argentina, as Swift kicked off her Eras tour outside North America on Thursday with the first of three performances in Buenos Aires.
“Milei=Trump,” read a post from Swifties Against Freedom Advances, which is the name of Milei’s party.
After Milei came second in Argentina’s election last month, sending him to the runoff against Sergio Massa, the center-left Economy Minister, 10 Argentine Swift fans created the group and issued a statement calling on others fans to vote against Milei.
“We cannot not fight after having heard and seen Taylor give everything so that the right does not win in his country,” the group stated.
The two-page missive was viewed 1.5 million times on X, formerly Twitter, before the platform suspended the group’s account without explanation, the group said.
The statement called Milei’s stances against legal abortion, his support for relaxing gun laws and his proposals to reform public education and public health care “a danger to democracy.”
He also took aim at Milei’s comments that criticized feminism, claimed that there was no pay gap between men and women, and referred to the atrocities committed by Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 as simply “excesses.”
Milei has ignored the Swifties. “I’m not far-right,” she told a radio station. “They can express whatever they want.”
Swift has not commented publicly on the election.
Swifties’ criticism of Milei has diverted the conversation toward her conservative social views and away from her drastic proposals to reverse Argentina’s economic crisis, such as replacing the Argentine peso with the US dollar and closing the country’s central bank.
Swift’s comments in a 2020 documentary, in which she said she had decided to publicly oppose Donald J. Trump despite the risk to her career, have been widely circulating in Argentina in recent weeks.
But it’s not just the Swifties who are organizing against Milei. He and his running mate, Victoria Villarruel, also face criticism from fans of the K-pop band BTS. They are so active and organized on the Internet that they are known as the BTS Army.
By: NATALIE ALCOBA
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6975562, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-11-08 18:30:07
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