Javier Milei, a libertarian economist and former tantric sex teacher became Argentina’s president-elect on Sunday, vowing to stamp out government corruption and make the country a global power in his victory speech.
Running on the La Libertad Avanza — Liberty Advances — ticket, he beat Sergio Massa, the center-left economy minister, 55.7 to 44.3 in a runoff election and will take office next month.
His victory made him one of the few libertarians ever to be elected world leader and the only one currently in office.
Milei, 53, ran the inaugural campaign against Massa, the Peronist establishment candidate, pledging to adopt the dollar and abandon the peso to curb 124 percent inflation as well as recriminalize abortion and privatize the country’s rivers as a way to stop pollution.
Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei kisses girlfriend Fatima Florez after winning Sunday’s second round of voting. Florez makes a living impersonating politicians, including former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner.AP Supporters of Javier Milei rally outside his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires after his victory on Sunday.AP
The populist has been compared for his unusual public persona and roots in television fame to former President Trump. Supporters wore Make Argentina Great Again hats, while in a lively rally he wielded a chainsaw and promised to use it on corruption and boring national bureaucracy.
Milei’s campaign capitalized on how decades of rule by center-left Peronists had left the country poor, with two in five below the poverty line, and the rest of the country facing rampant inflation where interest rates above 100% had no effect.
He got votes among young people especially, in a country where the minimum voting age is 16. Young people in particular responded enthusiastically to Milei’s performances on social media and in TV interviews — and her promises for change in a country plagued by extreme poverty and triple-digit inflation.
“Because of the way Milei talks, I buy everything she says. He has a way of expressing himself that reaches people,” 17-year-old Tomas Kremenchuzky from Beunos Aires told Reuters.
Javier Milei talks to the Argentine TV host about his beloved mastiff Conan. Milei spent $50,000 to clone Conan at a New York animal genetics facility. lasexta.com Milei brought her cloned pets to television while they were growing up. He has five clones in total, one named Conan for the original English mastiff, and four named for free-market economists he admires.PerPETuate
And he denounced the center-left ruling class he called a “caste” that had plundered the country, declaring in his victory speech, “Today is the end of Argentina’s decline.”
The country’s long-running economic crisis is a major weakness for his opponent Massa, who has overseen him under the current president, Alberto Fernández, who has virtually disappeared from public life in recent months.
Milei has also called China a “killer” for its impact on Argentina’s economy, and said he wants to cut ties both with Beijing, and Brazil, Argentina’s other biggest trading partner.
Still, Chinese leaders called him to congratulate him on Monday and pledged to work with Argentina, which faces a $44 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund.
Milei has spoken of her love for Conan, her dead dog, and held up a painting of him on the campaign trail.@juanelegonzalez/X Milei praised her sister Karina (left) as Aaron to her Moses and called him “the boss” for his political marketing instincts.REUTERS
At the last minute he reneged on a promise to allow a free market in human and children’s organs, which he had previously said were “trafficked too.”
The populist also toned down some of his most inflammatory rhetoric in a campaign ad ahead of Sunday’s vote: “We’re not going to privatize health care. We will not privatize education. We will not privatize football. We will not allow the unrestricted carrying of arms.”
The tousled-haired Milei has enjoyed the nicknames “The Wig” and “The Lion” for his luxurious hair, and as a teenager was known as “El Loco,” or “the crazy one” for his excesses on and off the soccer field, a name a call that he also embraced.
And he has doted on his dead dog, Conan, a 200-pound English mastiff, who has been the focus of his populist revival, holding up paintings of the pet on the campaign trail.
Milei fans wear wigs and carry fake chainsaws, and this one even gets a fake bodyguard. Milei has had fun with her nicknames including “The Wig” and “The Lion.” AP Dubbed “the crazy one,” economist Javier Milei surged to victory by pledging to cut the country’s sprawling federal bureaucracy.REUTERS
She had Conan cloned in upstate New York after his death in 2017. The cloning cost $50,000, the New York Times reported, and remarkably resulted in five litters of puppies to one clone.
Four of the mastiffs— Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas — are named for free market economists Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas and Murray Rothbard.
Another is named Conan after the original animal, whose unauthorized biography, “El Loco,” claims he still talks.
Milei calls the dogs her “four-legged children” or grandchildren, telling how she prefers the company of the original Conan, named for the hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to her own family.
Milei and her sister Karina were raised by Norberto Milei, a bus driver, and Alicia, a housewife, in a middle-class house in Buenos Aires. She has said her father beat her and abused her psychologically.
His girlfriend Fatima Florez is a 42-year-old comedian who impersonates another politician. The two met on a chat show and on Instagram she calls herself “Your Lioness.” @javiermilei/Instagram Florez has also impersonated Milei, wearing a wig like many of her supporters. She may not be the first lady, with the presidential candidate having floated her sister to take the role.@javiermilei/Instagram
“All the beatings I received when I was a child mean, today, I’m not afraid of anything,” Milei said during the campaign, adding that “[my father] always telling me that I’m trash, that I’m going to starve to death.”
Milei said she cut off communication with her parents between 2010 and 2020, but reconciliation was managed by Karina during the outbreak. His father appeared at a campaign anniversary rally for Milei and called his son “a genius.”
Mieli floated the idea of installing Karin, 50, who once owned a tire repair shop and sold cakes before working for her brother’s coalition, as the South American country’s first lady.
The president-elect has called 50-year-old Karina Milei the “soul” of his libertarian presidential campaign. He refers to her in public as “the boss,” and has praised her skills as a shrewd political marketer.
“Musa is a great leader but not a great communicator,” he told an Argentine interviewer during the campaign. “God sent Harun to be a communicator. I am to Kari as Harun is to Moses.”
Milei leaned on memes as part of her campaign, posting a Make Argentina Great Again meme on Instagram that showed her, former President Trump wearing a MAGA hat and defeating Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in a Brazilian-themed version. When Taylor Swift came to town earlier this month, fans plastered the area around the stadium with “Swifties Do Not Vote Milei” signs.AP
Karina also taught herself to be a medium so she could facilitate communication between her brother and Conan after the mastiff died in 2017, according to reports.
If he becomes the first lady, it will not be his girlfriend Fatima Florez, a comedian who pokes fun at famous politicians. Among his biggest targets is the former president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner.
The two started dating this year after meeting on a chat show and he calls himself “your lioness” on Instagram, wearing Milei’s wig like her most ardent fan.
As a teenager Milei was a semi-professional soccer goalkeeper and played in a Rolling Stones cover band, before switching to economics where she had two degrees, then became a regular presence on television first talking about economics — then sex.
In 2017, he told a panel show that he had regular threesomes, “90% of them” involving two women, and also a “tantric teacher,” then discussed his practice in detail.
He entered politics in 2020, comparing the Argentine state to the mafia.
“If I had to choose between the state and the mafia, I would choose the mafia, because the mafia has a code, the mafia obeys, the mafia does not lie and, above all, the mafia competes,” he said.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
