A Javier Miley He is proud to present himself as a Taliban. It is a curious metaphorical operation to highlight his unwavering conviction, by dint of identifying with the opposite of his ideals: an Islamic fundamentalist who hates individual freedom.
The choice of a deliberately exaggerated label reflects the need for self-affirmation of a man who faces the existential crossroads between the creed he wears like a second skin and the institutional responsibility he won at the polls. The agitator Milei who shook the political system to its roots expresses the discomfort of being President Milei, in charge of ordering the chaos that he so efficiently knew how to describe.
The republican system works for him like a labyrinth. “There are many more restrictions than you think,” Milei told his friend on Tuesday. Alejandro Fantino, in a three-hour conversation that is very revealing of the intimate dilemmas of the leader who governs Argentina in these times of deep crisis. It was there where he explained that in his government there are hawks, doves and “two Taliban” (he and his minister Patricia Bullrich). He vindicated his opinion that “the State is a criminal organization,” “an enemy,” “a machine of repression.” And he emphasized that he has a clear vision of the world, “an immovable North”, but that only “a utopian imbecile” can ignore that “the world is what it is” and that it is impossible to reach that definitive destination in a straight line. .
His dawning of pragmatism is, in its own way, an exercise in empathy. Milei feeds with his talent as an activist the patience of those who trusted him and face the harshness of the present. Those who applauded him said that he would cut off his arm before imposing a tax and now they see the reimposition of Profits coming. Those who were excited about dollarization. Those who believed that the adjustment was going to fall, as the candidate Milei said, on “the caste” and not on “the good Argentines.”
He assumes the experimental nature of his mission when he repeats whenever he can that he is the first libertarian president in the history of humanity. But he begs for understanding. “We have to adapt to get where we want,” he reflects.
The illusion must not fade. Milei bases his strength on the support of public opinion, cyclothymic by nature. Not only is he the President with the most parliamentary fragility since 1983, but the political construction makes him allergic. He is refractory to the allies on offer and the dynamics of his leadership expose the libertarian universe to periodic outbreaks, as the crisis of the ruling bloc of deputies revealed on Wednesday.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Milei takes on the mission of showing the light at the end of the tunnel. Her positive image figures remain well above the waterline (about 50%). The macroeconomy presents signs that excite him: fiscal balance, stable dollar, upward bonds. The other side is the brake on activity and the possible specter of a spike in unemployment. Is hope in society so solid? Those who advise the President know that it is one thing to anticipate the recession and another to experience it.
It’s time to contort in the ideological arena. The offensive against private medical companies for increases that worry the middle class hardly fits into the toolbox of an ultra-orthodox liberal. Milei let it be known when she said that he does not pressure executives to lower prices like Guillermo Moreno did: “I’m not putting a gun on your table to force you, I’ll explain to you what it’s about,” she justified herself.
The unrest over prepaid installments – a product of the liberalization of prices after December 10 – raised a warning signal that the President had to attend to. Now there are increases in public service rates, behind which the Government is directly. Another challenge to citizen tolerance.
Milei and his people perceive that they have entered the zone of turbulence. The anxiety to show results leads him to become exasperated with those who point out doubts. The fury with critical journalism is mirrored by the annoyance caused by economists who identify inconsistencies in his plan. Miguel Ángel Brodaan Orthodox guru and former Milei employer, said that the adjustment applied by the Government “was excessive, crude and unsustainable.” Domingo Cavalloan idol of neo-90s who is in power, warned about the exchange rate delay and the negative impact it will have on the objective of lifting the clamp on the dollar. Carlos Rodriguezthe professor who accompanied Milei in his first meeting with the IMF when he was a candidate, does not stop pointing out inconsistencies between the current course and liberal philosophy.
Milei spreads attacks on the doomsayers: “Idiots,” “stupid,” “ignorant.” She often attributes to them the spurious defense of unhealthy interests.
So much anxiety to show that the plan works pushes him to commit bloopers inexplicable. A man like him, who prides himself on obsessively analyzing all the economic indices, relied on data from a social media account to announce that there is “deflation” in basic basket products. “Price drop, Fantino, price drop! Inflation is going to collapse like a piano,” he said to his interlocutor. Two hours later it was revealed that the supposed Jumbo chain bot was the parody of an anonymous prankster. His Minister of Economy, Luis Caputohad also used that imaginary thermometer in a previous interview.
To qualify the collapse of activity, he appealed to data from the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME): “When you take the CAME sales data you will see a short figure. What we thought was much further away is closer than we imagined. That’s why they’re so nervous.” Alfredo González, the director of the entity, came out to take off a while later. “The drop in sales of SMEs was 28.7 percent in January, 25.8 percent in February and March, 12.6 percent,” he said, denying even the expectation of an ongoing reactivation. . It is falling at a slower speed, but still at historic levels.
Self-praise, sometimes hasty, is a constituent trait of Milei’s character. She is often presented as a visionary. The one who “sees it.” In these efforts, he usually incurs forgetfulness and contradictions.
He swore in his talk with Fantino that in March neither he nor his ministers realized that their salaries had increased. “You know why? Because those of us in the cabinet don’t look at pay stubs. Everyone is coming for the bronze! We are all going against what we have in store. Do you think we can live with what we are earning?”. The statement is suggestive because it reviews his recent statement (very much in line with the anti-politics discourse) that he conceives the presidency of the Nation as “just another job.” What worker ignores the salary he earns?
That same day he reported that the ceremony he led last week in Ushuaia with the American general Laura Richardson It was “the greatest act of sovereignty that was carried out in the last 40 years.” And he predicted: “It is the first step to start thinking about the recovery of the Malvinas. Come on, let them get it out of the corner!”
The talk with Fantino continued like this:
-So, did you move that piece thinking that in the future we could ask for what is ours to be returned?
-Obvious. Through diplomatic means.
Eleven minutes later, already talking about another topic, Milei told what her decision-making method is like and wanted to give an example.
-We are in a cabinet meeting and we are informed of the rudeness of the governor of Tierra del Fuego to General Richardson. Oh yeah? So, faced with that rudeness, I said: “I’ll finish the note with Bloomberg, I’ll get on the plane and I’ll go greet her.”
-Ah, weren’t you going to go?
-No. Faced with the rudeness, I traveled. I gave him the reception.
The strategic genius of version one and the rape of dignity of version two are told with equal passion. Just like when he declared war on drug trafficking, he immediately defended the right to launder money without limits: “If you want to use 50 green sticks, I don’t give a damn.” He does not believe in “laws of politicians who want to steal money from people.”
Needless to say, the money laundering proposed in the new legislative package promoted by the Government is not at zero cost. The restrictions – you already warned – are there, always present.
Benegas Lynch’s mistake
For this reason, he considers that Bertie Benegas Lynch made “a mistake” by expressing his disdain for public education. It was not the opportunity to touch on such a thorny issue, already removed in the campaign from the original proposals of the libertarians. The son of the intellectual whom Milei considers his personal hero had the consolation prize after the reprimand: he was offered, through internal scandal, the presidency of the strategic Impeachment Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
Those who follow him have to learn to swim in a sea of contrasts. Regardless of Milei’s deep convictions, you have to know how to adapt to sudden changes. The only thing sacred and not to be challenged is presidential authority and the perception that he is a man at war with a corrupt caste. That is why he did not hesitate to cut off heads when he was negatively exposed to public opinion due to the uncommunicated increase in salaries in the Executive Branch. And that’s also why he ordered the execution of Oscar Zago as head of the libertarian bloc when he suggested – almost mockingly – that Milei had endorsed with a emoji of the cell phone the designation of Marcela Pagano in the Impeachment Commission.
“My North is Murray Rothbard,” proclaims the President. As if at the end of the zigzag to which the exercise of his office forces him he hoped to decree the disappearance of the State. The libertarian guru who inspired the name of one of Milei’s dogs said: “The functions of the State are divided into two: those that can be privatized and those that can be eliminated.”
The particular odyssey of the Argentine disciple is full of obstacles and traps, which may force him – restriction after restriction – to definitively change his destiny. Ultimately, a primary question in these turbulent times is whether “the Taliban” Milei will go down in history as the man who brought down a decadent system or if he will be able to build a new one.
