Argentina's Javier Milei Is the Wrong Answer to the Right Questions | Opinion

Argentina has the highest inflation rate in the world, owes billions of dollars to foreign creditors, and has not experienced sustained economic growth since 2011. Amid this economic debacle, the country has maintained democratic rule, which has allowed voters to switch between two main coalitions: center-left Peronism, led by former president Cristina Kirchner, and center-right Juntos por el Cambio, led by her successor in office, Mauricio Macri.

The voters' willingness to punish lackluster administrations has not resulted in better outcomes. By the end of 2023, more than 40 percent of the population lived under the official poverty line, and the GDP per capita had consistently declined during the past 12 years.

Is it not surprising that in this context, during the 2023 presidential campaign, Javier Milei captured peoples' attention as a newcomer with no ties to traditional parties. He campaigned on the promise to end inflation and create economic growth. He blamed all the country's problems on the "caste," the politicians who had occupied positions of power during the last 40 years, and proposed that the state was a criminal association that stole resources from the private sector.

In the runoff against Peronist Sergio Massa, who had overseen record inflation as the economy minister, Milei clinched victory with a significant majority.

Milei was attuned to the pain points of the electorate being inflation, poverty, and recession. He was also an enigma. He had spent most of his career as an economic advisor to one of the richest entrepreneurs in Argentina, and had been a member of Congress for only two years, during which he had rarely shown up to vote. His newly formed party, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Moves Forward), was composed by a group of characters ranging from seasoned politicians (somehow exempted from being part of the "the caste" system he railed against) to cosplay performers. It also had less than 10 percent of senators and 15 percent of deputies in Congress, which would make any sweeping policy changes extremely difficult.

Two months after taking office, the probability of his success is still uncertain. However, Milei's governing style has been revealed. He promptly sent to Congress the "bill of foundations and starting points for the freedom of the Argentines," which declared a public emergency in economic, financial, fiscal, security, and social matters and sought to delegate legislative powers to the executive for two years. The president withdrew it when negotiations with legislators threatened the articles he was most interested in, and took to social media to name and shame those deputies as "traitors" for not endorsing the bill in its entirety.

In December, the bill was the revolutionary piece of legislation that Argentina needed to rise from its ashes. By February, it was merely a device to identify which lawmakers were really in favor of change, and which ones were irrevocably part of the caste, and its defeat was a success. The president proposes to lower the country's chronic financial deficit by slashing welfare and funds to provinces.

Rather than seeking to tackle Argentina´s real problems through consensus and collaboration, Milei seems intent on polarizing with whomever dares to antagonize him, while weaponizing his social media accounts against the "enemies of change," a category that includes governors, members of Congress, and even pop stars.

Meanwhile, inflation remains at record-highs, poverty is increasing, and the International Monetary Fund has revised its forecast for Argentina's GDP, which is expected to fall, yet again by more than 2 percentage points in 2024. Inflation, poverty, and recession were the issues that won Milei the presidency, but his policies and rhetoric do not appear to be the answer.

Eugenia Mitchelstein, PhD, is associate professor and chair of the department of social sciences at Universidad de San Andrés in Argentina.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.