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Flat White

Post-Davos, Argentina’s Milei holds the Libertarian line: ‘There’s no plan B’

3 February 2024

1:21 AM

3 February 2024

1:21 AM

Post-Davos, Javier Milei’s Libertarian plan for Argentina hasn’t changed.

As suspicious as any association with the shady World Economic Forum makes politicians look, Milei is holding the line.

He told WSJ Editor-in-Chief, Emma Tucker in an interview on Friday, ‘There’s no plan B.’

‘There is no plan B to do things right.

‘Because plan B is to start doing things halfway or compromise, that’s the story of Argentina, and that’s where we are now.

‘The key value drivers of our program are non-negotiable.’

Plan A is a two-year strategy to solve Argentina’s economy crushing, and unsustainable levels of inflation.

The chainsaw-wielding president aims to do this by deflating a bloated bureaucracy, fixing Argentina’s decades-long [socialist] economic maladministration, and switching the Peso to the US Dollar.

Part of the plan will include bringing back individual responsibility and curing the nation of its addiction to socialist opiates such as co-dependency on the nanny state.

As the WSJ explained, Plan A might be painful because ‘Argentinians are used to relying on the government for everything, from transportation subsidies to welfare programs’.

Despite this, Milei isn’t budging. He sees any deviation as a compromise towards catastrophe.

I can see why pulling Argentina out of its foolish Marxist nose-dive into oblivion, is Milei’s current raison d’etre.

Other than burdensome red tape taxation and massive welfare programs, ‘33 per cent+ (upwards of 4.2 million) of 13 million people in formal employment in Argentina ‘work’ for the state.’ (The Economist).


So bad is the threat of economic collapse, Milei is moving to ‘privatise’ as many state-owned organisations as fast as he can.

‘Every state company that I can sell, I will. Whatever we can, we will privatise,’ he asserted.

An obvious realist, he isn’t promising more than he can deliver.

There are caveats, and Milei is open about them.

‘Institutional restrictions’ and the time it takes to decentralise will cause delays by obstructing his peoples-choice, libertarian mandate.

Argentina’s messed up economic system is another Leftist Leviathan that cannot admit socialism has failed and baulks at criticism as the language of the oppressor.

For them, all non-Marxist solutions are racist, homophobic, patriarchal, heteronormative, ‘whiteness’, oppressive, or far-right.

On China, Milei said, he was keeping to his word.

The punk rock politician – as I’ve dubbed him – won’t partner up with communists.

This is why they’ve refused to join BRICS.

Instead of his government being in bed with the Chinese Communists, Milei wants to see Argentina’s business sector take a greater role in the country’s trade relationship with the Chinese.

‘I will not be allied with communists. I don’t consider China to be a strategic partner. But we must separate geopolitical issues from trade ones.’

For instance, ‘Argentina disagrees with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, that doesn’t prevent a set of mature trade relations,’ he explained.

Milei also defended his condemnation of Hamas, stating Israel was right to act in self-defence.

He then confirmed reports he was considering converting to Judaism, a move that isn’t likely anytime soon, because Shabbat, he said, would be difficult to observe as President.

Asked who he identifies with politically as a leader, Milei responded:

‘Leaders throughout history who have embodied freedom.

‘I mean, the greatest liberator in history is Moses. Let’s say, he’s a libertarian leader without a doubt.’

It’s no surprise the man who has both mesmerised and triggered the political world, added to his list Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margret Thatcher.

‘You’ll always find me on the side of those who have defended the ideas of freedom.’

This article was first published in Caldron Pool.

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