It is a change that intends to be abrupt, rapid and planetary. Javier Milei, who bet on the new president of the United States from the beginning, understood this new era and is now reaping recognition, essential fuel for his exuberant enthusiasm.
Last week, in the USA, Milei spoke with Trump and Elon Musk, the power behind the throne; in Argentina, he received French President Emmanuel Macron; at the G20, held in Brazil, he met with the communist Chinese president, Xi Jinping, demonstrating once again his pragmatism; this Wednesday, in Buenos Aires, he is hosting the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. The president is at his best: inflation is falling, the dollar is calm, and he is interacting with the most select group in international politics.
On the national stage, Milei is now preparing to fight for political control of the country facing a fragmented and disoriented opposition. An opposition that, almost suicidally, wants to avoid the work of analyzing its own contribution to the decadence that drove the change in the political climate that made the current president’s victory possible.
A survey circulating very discreetly within Peronism reflects a resounding opinion: 68% of those consulted are convinced that former president Cristina Kirchner is guilty of corruption. This nucleus is immune to the former president’s predictable response after the ratification of her six-year prison sentence. What is Cristina saying? That there is legal persecution against her and that they want to banish her from political life.
His advisors here repeat the same strategy that Lula has used in Brazil since he was arrested. Apparently, they are the same consultants that the Brazilian had at the time. But it is clear that Argentina is not Brazil, that Cristina is not Lula, and the current head of Peronism asks only one thing from the minority that follows her: resist. His strategy of waiting to see the fruit – the new government – fall from ripeness, as the only alternative, was a failure announced from the beginning, and reveals not only the lack of strategic focus, but also the inability to recognize the signs of a new time.
Milei managed to place Cristina in a place of the past, with an agenda and a speech from a time that has passed, when she imagined herself invincible and stainless. Kirchnerism has not only been defeated, but has also aged, and maintains a stance that a large part of society considers as the cause of the difficult situation the country is currently experiencing.
In the popular imagination, this past still weighs more than this present of anguish. Therefore, the government does everything to ensure that it does not fall into oblivion: with fanfare, it changes the names of public places, removes statues, threatens to do away with the previous iconography. Historically, this is what happens when a regime changes: it also has to be overthrown culturally. This is what the government is trying to do. Foreign policy is also abruptly changing direction, abandoning traditional positions of Argentine diplomacy and seeking to anticipate the positions that, they believe, Trump will end up adopting.
The government chose to confront Cristina, and she accepted this challenge because it is part of her nature. The former president is having to swallow the same medicine she used to create enemies when she was in power. Milei, who applies the same method, stopped ignoring her as she did in the beginning and now confronts her.
Milei and Cristina need the space between them to be scorched earth. Both believe in hegemonic discourses, in the “constituted powers”, in “caste”, and in direct communication – ignoring journalism -, whether through endless national radio and television networks, in her case, or the incessant hammering of social networks , in his case.
The government is determined to build its own right-wing political force, as they define it. Its objective is to substantially increase the number of La Libertad Avanza parliamentarians in Congress. The objective of this advance is also hegemony.
But in Argentina, you need to know how to manage your excitement: history is wise and past experiences recommend caution because the country (who doesn’t realize?) is still walking a tightrope.
Milei is experiencing her best moment since coming to power, but she shouldn’t give in to wonder: society’s problems are still far, far away, from being resolved.