By Katy Watson, BBC South America Correspondent
Javier Milei wielded a chainsaw at one of his rallies to symbolise his plans to slash spending. Photo: AFP / Marcos Gomez
Argentina votes on Sunday local time in one of the most open presidential elections for decades. The effects of a deep economic crisis have proved fertile ground for an unorthodox far-right front-runner, with wild hair, big sideburns and a totally radical approach to ruling the country.
Javier Milei was, until recently, a relative unknown. An economist, pundit and rock fan, he came top in recent primaries and polls now put him ahead in Sunday's first round.
He is very clear about wanting to shake things up. At one campaign event, he wielded a chainsaw to send a message that he intends to slash spending to improve Argentina's economy.
"We want an outsider who actually has the guts to fight the mafias in this country," says Alejandro Lazcano, one of thousands of supporters queuing up to get a ticket to Milei's closing campaign event six hours before it started. "Who actually has the guts to be able to make the changes that are needed?"
Javier Milei, who's often compared to former US president Donald Trump, certainly claims he will. He's said he wants to blow up the central bank and introduce the dollar as the country's official currency to put an end to inflation that is running at well over 100 percent.
With Argentina teetering on the edge of economic collapse, that is a message that resonates with millions.
"Milei's mighty candidacy reflects regional anti-establishment sentiment, after a decade of sluggish growth and an economic bludgeoning from the pandemic," says Benjamin Gedan, who heads up the Wilson Centre's Argentina Project.
"Voters seem genuinely intrigued by Milei's promise to dollarise the economy. They are ready to drop the peso like a bad habit, whether or not Milei could effectively adopt the US currency."
Army of TikTok influencers
They're bold promises that are making a noise here, but go on to the streets of Buenos Aires and you'd be hard-pushed to know he even exists.
The walls and billboards are full of posters with smiling candidates asking people to vote. But none of them have Javier Milei's face on.
And that's because he's campaigning with an army of influencers, spreading his word, mostly on TikTok.
Iñaki Gutierrez is one of them - a 22-year-old law and economics student, he saw Brexit as inspiration for how to run a political campaign.
"I saw lots of campaigning on Facebook - there was a lot of money for the Leave campaign and it blew my mind in communication terms," Iñaki says.
So he went to see Javier Milei and convinced him that he needed to be on social media. Iñaki and his girlfriend have since spearheaded Javier Milei's campaign on TikTok. The couple have their own massive fan base too.
"It's changing the way people inform themselves," says Iñaki.
"You don't have to have big structures any more to do politics, to go to towns [to campaign] - you can, with a phone, reach the whole country in hours and talk to everyone."
Up against Javier Milei are Peronist Economy Minister Sergio Massa and former security minister, conservative Patricia Bullrich: two candidates from Argentina's traditional ruling classes.
"Milei's vote cuts across all socio-economic levels," according to political analyst Ana Iparraguirre.
She says these elections are not, as they so often have been in the past, about Kirchnerismo (the populist political movement formed by supporters of Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner) or Argentina's most famous and enduring political movement, Peronism.
"He's talking about a political caste against everyone else," says Ana Iparraguirre. "That's why it changed how the whole political system is organised."
Javier Milei paints himself as the outsider, one with very strong opinions: he wants to loosen gun laws and restrict abortion.
And in a recent debate, Javier Milei also disputed the widely accepted figure of 30,000 people who were disappeared during Argentina's brutal dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, arguing the number was a much lower 8,753.
"People see him as someone authentic who says what he really thinks even if what he says is politically incorrect," says Ana Iparraguirre. "I think that is a big part of why people vote for him."
But for Massa supporter Malena Haboba the future is worrying.
"Everything is at risk, even the most simple things," she says of a Milei presidency. "I'm worried about persecutions for women who choose to abort - it'll be a return to the kitchen for women."
Javier Milei's critics are trying to break down the political debate and demystify the sound bites and fake news that has come to shape so many political campaigns. And many are responding through the medium his supporters know best - TikTok.
"With our content we're trying to debunk some baseless proposals, they're just spouted in the media," says Caro, who makes videos for the TikTok account @indisciplinadxs, which was set up in response to Javier Milei's rise.
"For us, it's really important to bring Argentina's political history to the fore - the social history, economic history, to realise that what he is proposing isn't anything new, in fact it's already happened and it didn't work - and had many economic and social implications for our country."
But if the polls are right, voters don't care. As he addressed a packed stadium for his closing campaign event on Wednesday, the crowd clearly identified with this rebel politician in a well-worn leather jacket.
With their fists in the air, they energetically chanted "Freedom" in response to his campaign promises. In a country where millions struggle each and every day, the opportunity to try something radically different - no matter the uncertainty that comes with it - is appealing.
With additional reporting by Jessica Cruz
- This story was originally published by the BBC
Argentines to vote, seeking escape from economic shambles
By AFP
October 21, 2023
Political outsider Javier Milei, former security minister Patricia Bullrich, and Economy Minister Sergio Massa, are the frontrunners in the election(L to R) -
Luis ROBAYO, JUAN MABROMATA
Fran BLANDY
Argentines head to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election dominated by fury over decades of economic decline and record inflation that has propelled political outsider Javier Milei to the front of the race.
Once one of the richest countries in the world, Argentina has stagnated in recent decades, unable to escape cycles of fiscal crises marked by debt, financial mismanagement, and inflation which now stands at 140 percent year-on-year.
With 40 percent of the population living in poverty and a middle-class brought to its knees, many voters are keen to see the back of the traditional parties they see as the architects of their misery.
“It’s total uncertainty — you never know if your rent will go up, (or) prices in the supermarket. It’s madness,” said university student Valentin Figarra, 20. “One wants to grow… but this generation is falling behind, it’s sad.”
Milei, a libertarian economist who formed his party Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) only in 2021, blindsided most experts and pollsters when he surged to the front of the election race, winning a primary with 30 percent of votes.
The self-described “anarcho-capitalist” with disheveled hair and a rock-star persona has lured voters with his diatribes on television and social media — where he vows to “dynamite” the central bank and ditch the peso for the US dollar.
He has run his campaign on TikTok and YouTube and showed up at live rallies with an actual powered-up chainsaw vowing to slash public spending by 15 percent.
– ‘Already broken’ –
Political science student Agustin Baletti, 22, said he will be voting for Milei because past governments have “left young people without hope.”
“Everything is already broken. Milei isn’t going to break anything.”
While Milei has topped opinion polls, these have not proved reliable in the past, and analysts say anything can happen between the three frontrunners out of five total candidates.
Charismatic Economy Minister Sergio Massa represents the ruling center-left Peronist coalition, a populist movement heavy on state intervention and welfare programs that has dominated Argentine politics for decades but has grown deeply unpopular.
Having overseen the country’s recent economic pains, he has been an easy punching bag for his rivals.
To woo voters, Massa has gone on a pre-election spending spree, slashing income tax for much of the population in a move analysts say will only make the country’s fragile financial situation worse.
To counter Milei, his government has taken pains to explain to voters what a loss of key subsidies that keep public transport and electricity, among others, dirt cheap, will mean.
– ‘Highly incompetent’ –
The other frontrunner is the stern and tough-talking Patricia Bullrich, a former security minister who has also vowed radical change from the overspending, money-printing Peronists and their strict currency controls.
Bullrich served in the government of former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), a pro-market, non-Peronist who failed in his promise to contain spending and took out a record $44 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund, which has bailed Argentina out 22 times despite several massive defaults.
Irene Landa, 70, a psychoanalyst said she believes Bullrich is the “most coherent” of the lot.
“Milei, to me, it would be like giving a revolver to a monkey,” Landa said. “But I think people are so fed up, so tired, that they believe in what he says.”
Voters are fed up with “politicians who have been highly corrupt, highly incompetent, who have never paid attention to something we learn in high school, that you shouldn’t spend more than you earn,” said Buenos Aires-based economist Andres Borenstein.
Argentina’s 35,8 million registered voters will be able to cast their ballots from 8am local time (1100 GMT) to 6pm (2100 GMT).
Preliminary results are expected on Sunday evening.
To avoid a runoff election on November 19, a candidate needs to win 45 percent of the vote Sunday, or 40 percent with a difference of 10 points or more over the nearest rival.
Fran BLANDY
Argentines head to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election dominated by fury over decades of economic decline and record inflation that has propelled political outsider Javier Milei to the front of the race.
Once one of the richest countries in the world, Argentina has stagnated in recent decades, unable to escape cycles of fiscal crises marked by debt, financial mismanagement, and inflation which now stands at 140 percent year-on-year.
With 40 percent of the population living in poverty and a middle-class brought to its knees, many voters are keen to see the back of the traditional parties they see as the architects of their misery.
“It’s total uncertainty — you never know if your rent will go up, (or) prices in the supermarket. It’s madness,” said university student Valentin Figarra, 20. “One wants to grow… but this generation is falling behind, it’s sad.”
Milei, a libertarian economist who formed his party Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) only in 2021, blindsided most experts and pollsters when he surged to the front of the election race, winning a primary with 30 percent of votes.
The self-described “anarcho-capitalist” with disheveled hair and a rock-star persona has lured voters with his diatribes on television and social media — where he vows to “dynamite” the central bank and ditch the peso for the US dollar.
He has run his campaign on TikTok and YouTube and showed up at live rallies with an actual powered-up chainsaw vowing to slash public spending by 15 percent.
– ‘Already broken’ –
Political science student Agustin Baletti, 22, said he will be voting for Milei because past governments have “left young people without hope.”
“Everything is already broken. Milei isn’t going to break anything.”
While Milei has topped opinion polls, these have not proved reliable in the past, and analysts say anything can happen between the three frontrunners out of five total candidates.
Charismatic Economy Minister Sergio Massa represents the ruling center-left Peronist coalition, a populist movement heavy on state intervention and welfare programs that has dominated Argentine politics for decades but has grown deeply unpopular.
Having overseen the country’s recent economic pains, he has been an easy punching bag for his rivals.
To woo voters, Massa has gone on a pre-election spending spree, slashing income tax for much of the population in a move analysts say will only make the country’s fragile financial situation worse.
To counter Milei, his government has taken pains to explain to voters what a loss of key subsidies that keep public transport and electricity, among others, dirt cheap, will mean.
– ‘Highly incompetent’ –
The other frontrunner is the stern and tough-talking Patricia Bullrich, a former security minister who has also vowed radical change from the overspending, money-printing Peronists and their strict currency controls.
Bullrich served in the government of former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), a pro-market, non-Peronist who failed in his promise to contain spending and took out a record $44 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund, which has bailed Argentina out 22 times despite several massive defaults.
Irene Landa, 70, a psychoanalyst said she believes Bullrich is the “most coherent” of the lot.
“Milei, to me, it would be like giving a revolver to a monkey,” Landa said. “But I think people are so fed up, so tired, that they believe in what he says.”
Voters are fed up with “politicians who have been highly corrupt, highly incompetent, who have never paid attention to something we learn in high school, that you shouldn’t spend more than you earn,” said Buenos Aires-based economist Andres Borenstein.
Argentina’s 35,8 million registered voters will be able to cast their ballots from 8am local time (1100 GMT) to 6pm (2100 GMT).
Preliminary results are expected on Sunday evening.
To avoid a runoff election on November 19, a candidate needs to win 45 percent of the vote Sunday, or 40 percent with a difference of 10 points or more over the nearest rival.
My father, the war criminal: Children of Argentina's dictatorship grapple with dark past
FRANCE 24 Eng
France 24 is a French public broadcast service.
Oct 21, 2023
FRANCE 24 Eng
France 24 is a French public broadcast service.
Oct 21, 2023
Some Argentinians carry a heavy family secret. Under the country’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, their fathers were police or military officers. As such, they were responsible for the disappearance of up to 30,000 people, according to human rights groups. These men have since been accused – and sometimes convicted – of crimes against humanity. After decades of living in shame and silence, some of their now grown-up children have decided to make their voices heard and recount their terrible family legacy. They call themselves "the children of those who committed genocide".
Read more about this story in our article: https://f24.my/9sNd.y
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