BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — He believes selling human organs should be legal, climate change is a “socialist lie”, sex education is a ploy to destroy the family and that the Central Bank should be abolished. He could also be the next president of Argentina.
Javier Milei, an admirer of former US President Donald Trump, is the latest example of how right-wing populists are making inroads in Latin America, appealing to a citizenry angry with politics as usual and eager to outsiders shake up the system.
A libertarian economist and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” Milei made a name for himself by railing against the “political caste” on television. His presidential bid seemed like a sideshow until recently. Polls show his popularity is rising, and his proposals are dominating discussions ahead of the October election.
“Today no one can say that Milei is not someone who can reach the presidency,” said Luis Tonelli, a political scientist at the University of Buenos Aires.
Milei went from talking head to politician in 2021 when he won a seat in the lower house of the Argentine Congress. Since then, there has been little legislative activity, but 2.7 million people have signed up for their monthly drawing to give away their salary.
On a recent Sunday, fans lined up at the Buenos Aires Book Fair to watch him speak about his latest book, “The End of Inflation,” about Argentina’s most pressing economic issue: inflation in an annual rate greater than 100%. The book calls for cutting spending, abolishing the Central Bank and switching to the dollar.
Many of his fans never entered. They are mostly young men who treat the 52-year-old politician like a rock star and affectionately refer to him as “the wig” because of his messy hair.
“The caste is afraid,” Milei said, and her followers chanted.
Fearfully or not, the country’s political leaders now see him as a genuine competitor in an election that until recently looked like a contest between two electoral coalitions that have dominated for years.
Analysts have drawn parallels between Milei and Trump, because both espouse socially conservative views and promise to return the country to an unspecified period of greatness.
Federico Finchelstein, an Argentine historian at the New School for Social Research in New York, said Milei is “a Trump who considers himself an academic.”
Milei has tapped into frustration over Argentina’s triple-digit inflation, which has many feeling they are constantly falling behind. Seven out of 10 Argentines say they have difficulty making ends meet, said Roberto Bacman, director of the Center for Public Opinion Studies.
Francisco Beron, 21, a technology worker who listened to Milei from outside the book fair auditorium, said his starting salary last year was the equivalent of $700 a month. Despite two raises since then, Beron now makes less in dollar terms, or about $500.
“It’s absolute helplessness,” Beron said.
Finchelstein described Milei as the type of candidate who appears “with magical solutions” when people see that traditional politicians are not meeting their demands.
Milei sprinkles his economic messages with a heavy dose of conservative policies, such as opposition to abortion, which the country legalized in 2020.
Milei’s running mate, Victoria Villaruel, founder of a group that defends former military men on trial for human rights violations during the country’s brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship, has spoken out against same-sex marriage , which Argentina legalized in 2010.
Milei has gone against the grain on many issues. He dismisses current concerns about global warming by noting that “10 or 15 years ago there was talk that the planet would freeze.” He calls sex education a post-Marxist program to destroy “the most important social nucleus of society, which is the family.” He has proposed “market mechanisms” to deal with long waiting lists for organ transplants, arguing that organs are a person’s property to sell.
For many of Milei’s supporters, however, what he proposes takes a backseat to how he proposes it.
“It’s about revenge,” Tonelli said. “It’s the vote of ‘these people deserve it because they screwed me over, and now I’m going to take them down’.”
Ricardo Poledo, a 51-year-old doctor, said Milei’s appeal is that he calls out politicians as power-hungry kleptocrats. “The last thing they’re worried about is people.”
Poledo listened to Milei at the book fair while wearing the Gadsden flag as a cape. The yellow flag with a rattlesnake and the words “don’t tread on me” is an American symbol often associated with the libertarian right and which Milei and her supporters have adopted.
Milei’s rise is part of a regional shift that is coming to Argentina later than anywhere else in the hemisphere, Finchelstein said. In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro, often called Tropical Trump, ruled from 2019 to 2022. Elsewhere, right-wing populists are making inroads with a tough-on-crime message.
In Chile, the right-wing Republican Party recently won a majority of seats on a commission to rewrite the country’s constitution. In Paraguay, foreign populist Paraguayo Cubas took an unexpectedly strong third place in last month’s presidential election. And in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has seen his popularity rise amid a severe crackdown on gangs that has led to human rights abuses.
Some analysts have questioned whether Milei can win without a national structure to mobilize votes. So far, his popularity has not helped his allies win elections in provincial races. But Argentina’s presidential election includes a runoff, meaning a runoff could be enough for Milei to ultimately win.
“Milei is a new phenomenon in politics that is difficult to predict,” said Mariel Fornoni, from the consultancy Management & Fit. “There’s a gap and anything can happen.”
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Associated Press reporter Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.
