Milei’s three focuses

On Sunday (24), a crowd participated in an event in Praça de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, which commemorated the 48th anniversary of the 1976 military coup. The gigantic columns of protesters came from the former torture center (former ESMA ), in the Nuñez neighborhood, in Buenos Aires, to the epicenter of the meeting, after more than seven hours of walking. The aerial images, shown by television stations, and the number of participants walking along the main arteries of the Argentine capital, such as Avenida Santa Fe, confirmed the involvement of thousands of people in the historic date for the country. With signs that said “30 thousand missing” and “30 thousand reasons to defend human rights”, the crowd also displayed flags with photos of former president Juan Domingo Perón, founder of Peronism, and his ex-wife Evita Perón hugging each other, as well as flags from La Cámpora, the youth branch of this political movement. The faces of former president Cristina Kirchner and her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, who died in 2010, also appeared among the posters. The photos of the missing politicians during the dictatorship (1976-1983), the inscriptions that said ’30 thousand missing’ and the faces of the emblematic politicians of Peronism were a clear message for President Javier Milei, an opponent of Kirchnerism. Kirchnerism emerged after the inauguration of Néstor Kirchner as President, in 2003, and gained strength with the election of Cristina Kirchner, his successor, in 2007. During this period, from 2003 onwards, Kirchnerism only did not govern the country in the management of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). With Néstor, Cristina and Alberto Fernández, Milei’s predecessor, March 24 gained even more momentum, in line with the policies established by the presidential couple.

This Sunday, Milei made a point of emphasizing her differences with Kirchnerism’s human rights policy. In a 12-minute video, the government denies that 30,000 were missing, accuses human rights organizations of “doing business” and receiving undue figures and, at the same time, avoids condemning the military coup. The video appeals to what the Milei government called “complete memory” and clearly disagrees with the Kirchnerism stance in relation to the coup and the atrocities of the dictatorial years in Argentina. The video claims the victims of left-wing guerrilla organizations at the time and therefore speaks, as the Milei government argues, of ‘complete memory’.

In Argentina’s trajectory, it is common for a president, upon taking office, to seek to ‘sweep away’ the policies implemented by the previous government. The country has a zigzag trajectory in the political and economic areas, according to those who took over the Casa Rosada. During the presidential campaign, Milei rejected the number of 30,000 politically disappeared people (she claims that there are 8,000 formally registered) and generated criticism from left-wing movements. In the political sphere, he usually criticizes Kirchnerism for its political, economic and social bias.

In addition to seeking to differentiate itself and repudiate Kirchnerism, Milei has two other focuses: combating inflation and the fiscal deficit. The concern, however, including businesspeople sympathetic to her management, is the recession. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Argentina’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to decline 2.8% this year – contrary to the timid growth of around 2.4% in Latin American countries, according to the World Bank. In an interview with the television channel LN+, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, said that Argentine inflation is already “in single digits monthly” and once again defended the privatization of “all public companies”. This inflationary reality, which the minister observes, is still not perceived by the majority of the population. In December, after the devaluation of the peso, the national currency, added to what the government inherited from the previous administration, prices rose by around 25%. Last month, February, inflation fell to 13%. But to avoid boosting March prices, the government postponed increases in some services, now deregulated, such as gas, for example.

Milei has three clear focuses, in the internal scenario, and does not seem to intend to back down from his objectives, despite not having the majority of votes in the Senate and still facing the fact that Kirchnerism has 33 of the 72 seats in the house. His party, A Liberdade Avança (LLA), has seven seats, and the president of the Senate, the vice-president of the country Victoria Villarruel, who also repudiates Kirchnerist policies, has indicated differences in relation to Milei government initiatives. The Argentine political board deserves attention.