Javier Milei chose Verdi’s musical epic to open his presidential term, but also Balada para un loco, a tango by Astor Piazzolla with lyrics by the Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer. The song narrates a love conquest and symbolizes the ambition of an anarcho-capitalist economist to rescue Argentina from the abyss.
A country so rich in talent and raw materials should not be so dying, but it is dying without Peronism, its guardian for almost a century, knowing how to bring it back to life.
Argentina regained democracy in 1983. 40 years have passed and Peronism has ruled for 30 years, the last four, however, in a calamitous state, without a president who could impose his judgment on the unions, the powers that be locals and their own party.
Peronism has been nationalism and unionism, but this has not prevented some of its presidents from being ultra-liberal as well. It is a vital contradiction, a textbook case for any psychoanalyst, but no one has been able to solve it. Despite the number of divans at its disposal, the Argentine State has never had the courage to face its demons, as other Latin American countries have done, which have fought debt and inflation by reducing spending public and increasing private investment. Argentina, however, has preferred to print more currency to solve the Treasury’s conflicts, even if it raises inflation and discourages production.
When the right governed, especially Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), he opted for the free market, thinking that if exports were increased, inflation would be reduced. It was a failure and Macri was not re-elected.
Argentina accumulates a long decade of paralysis. GDP will fall at the end of the year. Inflation exceeds 140%, poverty affects 40% of society and the population trusts their savings to the dollar and cryptocurrencies before the peso.
Javier Milei had it very easy. He won the presidency with 56% of the vote. Any populist would have done the same. When everything fails, when the doctor evicts you, you put yourself in the hands of the first healer.
Milei has no government experience, and that’s why he won. He has promised heaven, although he knows that no one has touched it, and his only recipe for healing the economy is the usual one: spend less and earn more. It is necessary to cut public spending, privatize, restore the independence of the central bank in order to avoid the temptation to start printing banknotes and devalue the peso. Inflation will rise even higher. The middle classes will suffer greatly in the coming months.
However, Milei will protect the poorest, workers and pensioners. Like any good populist, he knows that they are the base of his electorate. Also, he needs them to disable unions. He must convince them that the bitterest medicine is the most effective. He also needs the Peronists. There has to be an agreement because they control Congress. If he doesn’t agree, any law he proposes will be overturned. He will not be able to dismantle the State that he criticizes so much, nor maintain his faith in the markets.
Milei is an eccentric street in the center. Macri advises him to be pragmatic, to lower his tone, to hide the chainsaw with which he won the elections. However, it is not clear whether he will pay attention to it. It would be the most logical, but no one, except his sister, knows him well, and she does not speak.
Karina Milei is his Moses and has brought him to the presidency. Now he does numbers. He needs the support of the Peronist governors who will not sell the seats they control cheaply, and he needs his brother to stop playing the clown talk show and tie his tie properly. It has led him to the top, but he still hasn’t achieved anything. The social cost of the reforms that Argentina needs is enormous. The benefit, however, is uncertain and the improvement will only be noticeable in the long term.
Milei has to keep a good mood so that the Argentines don’t get depressed even if they don’t make it to the end of the month. He also has to maintain the epic, which is why it was right that he took over with Verdi and Piazzolla.
The tango madman proposes to his girlfriend to join his “supersport illusion” and then promises her to “jump over the cleavage chasm”.
Here is Milei in his mortal leap over the abyss of beautiful and great Argentina. Prepare laxha.
