This Sunday, Argentina elected the far-right Javier Milei as president and is entering a period of deep uncertainty. The economist, who will take office on December 10, will have to manage a serious crisis, with high levels of poverty, minimum reserves and pending payments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The solutions of both could not be more different. Milei proposes reducing the State to a minimum and trusts that the market alone will solve the problems thanks to the development of trade and exports. He also proposes a review of the values of equality and social justice that have structured Argentine society since the beginning of the last century.
Towards the end of the campaign, the leader of La Libertad Avanza qualified his most controversial ideas, such as the free carrying of weapons, the end of social plans or the free sale of organs. These are his proposals on economy, security, foreign policy, health, education and human rights:
Economy
Milei proposes a “comprehensive reform” so that Argentina becomes “the thriving country” of the early 20th century. The “paternalistic State,” the ultraliberal believes, has been the beginning of all evils and that is why he proposes reducing it to a minimum. Milei intends, among other things, to reduce the number of ministries from 18 to eight, “progressively” eliminate social assistance plans and cut retirement and pension funds. His star proposals in economic matters are dollarization and “liquidating” the Central Bank. Milei also promises a “deep adjustment” that “the public sector will pay” and ending “in three months” the exchange rate, the regime that today restricts the purchase and sale of foreign currency.
Security
Security broke into the electoral campaign before the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries (PASO), when an 11-year-old girl was attacked by two criminals and died in the hospital. La Libertad Avanza dedicates the most extensive section of its electoral platform to this issue. The ultra proposes studying the lowering of the age of imputability, prohibiting the entry into the country of “foreigners with criminal records” and deregulating the “legal market” for firearms, a measure that during the electoral campaign caused controversy and the candidate has qualified . In addition, it proposes equipping, training and providing technology to security forces to give them back their “professional and moral authority” and have “zero tolerance” for crime. Milei’s running mate, Victoria Villarruel, promotes the idea that the Argentine Armed Forces join in internal security tasks, a task that is currently prohibited, and promised that the military budget will go from 0.6% of GDP to 2% if it reaches the Government.
Foreign policy
Milei is aligned with the United States, Israel and “the free world” and stated that he will break with Brazil and China, Argentina’s two main trading partners, if he reaches the Casa Rosada. During the last presidential debate, however, he said that this was “false” and got confused when trying to explain himself: “I deeply believe in openness to international trade. However, I also believe that the State does not have to intervene in commercial relations. “It is a private matter.” Milei also pointed out that Mercosur “is stuck” and rejected Argentina’s entry into the BRICS group of emerging economies. The ultraliberal also confronted the Vatican: he said that the Pope is a “disgusting lefty” and the “representative of the Evil One,” but then he stated that if he comes to the country he will receive him “with the honors of a head of state” and “of the head spirituality of the Church.
Education and health
Two of the ministries that Milei promised to close are those of Education and Health, which together with those of Social Development and Labor will be merged into one, that of “Human Capital”, as detailed in its electoral platform. The ultra candidate has proposed creating an “educational check voucher system” and giving the budget for education to parents “instead of giving it to the ministry.” In this area, he also proposes eliminating the mandatory nature of comprehensive sexual education. In health, Milei proposes moving towards a health insurance system: stop subsidizing the supply, that is, the hospitals, and finance the demand, that is, the patients. In this section of its program, La Libertad Avanza also defends protecting the child “from conception” and thus preventing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, which has been legal since 2020.
Democracy and human rights
During the campaign, the extreme right attacked some of the basic consensus built after the end of the last dictatorship (1976-1983). Milei and her future vice president, Victoria Villarruel, question many of the agreements reached in the democratic transition and believe that in Argentina there is “a job” [estafa] with human rights. Both deny state terrorism, which was recognized by justice, and instead maintain that the systematic plan promoted by the military Juntas was “a war” in which “excesses” were committed. Milei’s running mate also promotes what she calls “complete memory” and recently proposed dismantling the Esma Memory Museum, where the largest extermination center of the dictatorship operated and was declared a World Heritage Site in September. .
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