Javier Milei will be Argentina’s first libertarian president
But how much can he actually do?
He has dabbled in tantric sex and cosplay and performed in a Rolling Stones tribute band. He has smashed a piñata shaped like the central bank on television and performed an opera about public spending, while dressed as a superhero. Now Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, will try his hand at running Argentina. In a presidential election on November 19th he took 56% of votes, compared with 44% for Sergio Massa, the current economy minister and candidate from the Peronist movement, which has governed Argentina for 16 of the past 20 years. Mr Milei, who has been a legislator only since 2021, created his coalition, Liberty Advances, two years ago. Yet it won in 21 of Argentina’s 24 provinces.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “From cosplayer to president”
From the November 25th 2023 edition
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