The Face of Voter Disaffection in Argentina Is an Anarcho-Capitalist With Sideburns
09.06.2023
AN INTERVIEW WITH
PABLO PRYLUKA
In Argentina, the meteoric rise of hard-right libertarian Javier Milei has set off alarm bells. To avoid disaster in the October elections, the center-left candidate must convince voters that the welfare state is still worth fighting for.
Javier Milei, presidential candidate for the Liberty Advances party, during the Americas Society/Council of the Americas Latin American Cities Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 24, 2023. (Erica Canepa / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
INTERVIEW BY
NICOLAS ALLEN
Javier Milei has been a fixture of the Argentine political landscape for the last five years. Appearing on daytime talk shows, the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” made a name for himself by excoriating right-wing politicians for their moderation and quoting obscure paleolibertarians about the virtues of selling human organs on the open market.
The running gag was that Milei was completely out of step with mainstream politics in Argentina — a country better known for tight capital controls, price fixing, high union density, and a strong welfare state. However, after receiving the highest overall vote count in Argentina’s primary election, Milei is now in pole position to clinch the October general election.
Commentators have gone into overdrive trying to make sense of a development that, for most, came out of nowhere. Discounting the possibility that ten million Argentines made a midnight conversion to free-market fundamentalism, explanations tend to focus on the fact that Milei’s rebellious image struck a chord with an increasingly disillusioned electorate.
That is certainly half the story. But the other half, according to historian Pablo Pryluka, is about the crumbling of what was once assumed to be a stable political balance between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s center-left formation and the right-wing opposition coalition, led by business mogul Mauricio Macri.
More:
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/javier-milei-argentine-election-voter-dealignment-massa-bullrich-macri-peronism/
