Javier Milei, the front-runner in Argentina’s presidential elections to be held on October 22nd, is a man of many accomplishments. He is a free-market economist, an amateur soccer player, and a former rock-and-roller with a huge popular following.
His recent interview on Tucker Carlson’s Twitter channel – in Spanish, no less! – received an amazing 422 million views. What made this interview so powerful is that Milei simply annihilated all the arguments of the Left. Not one “progressive” policy—which collectively have destroyed the Argentinian economy and society over the past few decades–escaped his wrath.
To those familiar with him, Milei’s remarks to Tucker Carlson came as no surprise. Before entering the political arena, he had already acquired millions of fans. In countless appearances around the country, this charismatic figure had laced his presentations with ideas. In a country that has been mired in socialism for almost 70 years, his championing of free-market ideals was a breath of fresh air.
Argentina is blessed with bountiful natural resources, but the socialist policies of Juan Peron, called “Peronismo”, have driven it down the road to ruin. For decades, Argentinians have been longing for an exit ramp, and then Milei appears: what’s this? an economist who embraces the free market, who wants to shrink the state and liberate Argentines instead of drowning them in taxes?
It sounded ridiculous at first, but, little by little, Milei attracted millions of followers, especially young ones.
Milei’s outspoke conservatism portends the possibility first conservative victory in the cultural battle that we have been fighting throughout the Spanish-speaking world. And Milei has been at our side in that battle for years.
Milei has lit a spark among young conservative Argentines. Now they are demanding that the State stop drowning them in taxes and the socialist agenda of decline. In the realm of ideas, Milei has already won. His first battle was always the cultural battle. And with his unabashed and unadulterated conservatism, he has managed to reset the stage in Argentina’s political debate.
After Argentina’s last elections, there are no outright left-wing candidates left in the presidential race. With Milei in the race, everybody’s suddenly conservative – “shrink the state,” “lower taxes,” insist the other two candidates. Ironically, it’s now “revolutionary” to be conservative in Argentina!
One of the first issues touched upon by Carlson, and on which Milei has been consistent for years, was the defense of life from conception. And that means to combat the abortion movement, which the international population control cabal has been funding with millions of dollars and multinational pressure for years.
Since 2018, Milei has taken every opportunity to defend his pro-life principles.
Others on the endless late-night talk shows might belittle his views, even insult him, but he sticks to his guns. A friend, the popular Argentine journalist Alejandro Fantino, had warned Milei that being boldly pro-life would lose him votes. So what? Calmly explaining the no-nonsense evidence that the unborn are as human as the rest of us, he says he’s pure “blue” – the color worn by thousands of Argentines in their pro-life marches.
Milei regards abortion as murder and isn’t afraid to say so.
Today, two of Argentina’s three major candidates, Milei and Bullrich, have pro-life advisors. But Bullrich has some pro-abortion advisors too, and he supports abortion, while Milei and his vice-presidential candidate, Victoria Villarroel, are unabashedly pro-life. But whoever wins this fall, many pro-lifers could be have positions in Argentina’s new government by the end of this year.
One problem will confront Milei if he wins: In Argentina, abortion has been legal since 2020. And since it’s virtually impossible for Milei’s party to have a majority in parliament, that law isn’t likely to change.
Well, maybe not. Milei has offered to hold a referendum that might persuade – or even force –Congress to revise that law. Polls indicate that a majority of Argentines would welcome such a move. And this time around, it would be the president himself marching in the lead of that campaign.
But there’s plenty that Milei can do. He’s offered to close the Ministry of Women, which promotes “gender ideology.” He has said that sex education in schools will only be done with the permission of parents and under their guidance. In fact, he wants to institute educational vouchers so that parents can choose their children’s school, rather than have the State impose it on them.
One issue on which Catholics may feel a bit uncomfortable with Milei is that he defines social justice as theft. To understand this expression we must clarify that today, in Argentina, some 6 million workers who pay taxes support some 28 million citizens who receive direct monetary income from the national State. Therefore, those who pay taxes pay more and more taxes to maintain a State that maintains not only doctors, teachers and the military, but millions of people who receive subsidies without being productive – all in the name of “social justice”.
Seen in this way, the idea of stealing from some to give to others “in exchange for nothing” is understandable. But when journalist Eduardo Feinman asked him if he was thinking of immediately withdrawing all subsidies, Milei said “no,” because that would mean that many people would die of hunger. His approach? Transform the country so that the initiative of the private sector becomes so attractive that little by little Argentines want to stop living on subsidies and start working for a living.
For many Catholics, the true meaning of social justice is that everyone has the freedom and opportunity to flourish. Taking other people’s money in taxes so the state can run their lives quickly collapses into socialism. All too quickly, that’s not Catholicism – that’s communism.
Milei will fight that hard. In fact, both with Carlson and anyone else who will listen, Milei says he will not officially negotiate with communist regimes such as China, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba – not even Brazil, he insists, as long as Lula is the president. In the past, Milei has said that Argentines will be free to do business with those countries, but he doesn’t want his government to have anything to do with them.
So Milei is really a break with Argentina’s dismal Peronist past. Is there a downside?
Well, while he’s solid in many ways, he’s unpredictable in others. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, a trait that doesn’t sell well on TV – especially when he insulted Pope Francis a couple of years ago. He now says they disagree on some things, but he respects the Holy Father.
Will his aggressive advocacy and the temptation of power make him another Perón? Some pro-lifers fear that he might become a strongman, not from the Left but like a nineteenth-century caudillo – especially because he doesn’t have a strongly united political party base. In fact, pro-lifers in some provinces complain that his party has some bad apples – but Argentina is such a corrupt country that the Augean stables will not be cleaned in a fortnight.
As candidates, Milei and Donald Trump have many points in common: both are outsiders, both have strong personalities, both fearlessly bet on recovering conservative values, both seek to get corrupt politicians out of power … and both of them have members of their own party who might not share all their fierce convictions.
Perhaps a crucial difference is that Milei, even if he wins the presidency, will have the National Congress and the Senate against him. That is where his true negotiating capacity will be seen.
Milei is an agent of change, but the situation in Argentina is not easy to solve. In any case, if he succeeds in winning the elections, a process of renewal will begin that could be very good for Argentina, especially in the pro-life field. And the chances of him winning are, surprisingly, very high.
