Javier Milei’s landslide election victory, with 55.7% of the vote to his rival’s 44.3%, is not only terrible news for Argentina but terrifying for many. In a country celebrating 40 years of hard-won democracy, the far-right economist threatens to turn the clock back.
It would be easy to mock the former TV celebrity and tantric sex coach, who wielded a chainsaw at rallies and promised that he would take it to the state. But his election as president is no joke. Among the 53-year-old libertarian’s ideas are a referendum to overturn the legalisation of abortion, reducing gun ownership restrictions, making the trade in organs lawful, slashing social spending and abolishing the central bank. He has called the Argentina-born Pope Francis “the representative of the evil one on Earth”, smeared the victims of the military dictatorship as “terrorists” and claimed that their death toll was far smaller than the accepted 30,000 figure.
His win is bad news globally too, and not only because he dismisses climate change as a “socialist lie”. It is a filip for the far right around the world, and was welcomed as far away as Europe. Donald Trump, to whom Mr Milei has often been compared, and the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, were swift to congratulate him. » | Editorial | Monday, November 20, 2023
Another clown joins the circus! – © Mark Alexander
And if you’re wondering what ‘tantric sex’ is, I’ve googled it so you don’t have to! Here’s a link.
