The new star of the Argentine neoliberal firmament, Javier Milei would have become the living reflection of Trumpian incongruity and would have managed to make up for his novice in public management as well as the ignorance of his electoral program with the media impact of his public interventions.
By Germán Gorraiz López, Political analyst
Thus, it would have become a rare bird that manages to dismantle any opposition strategy that is minimally rational while suffering from serious autocratic tics.
Milei and populism
Milei’s ideology would have the paternity of Trump’s previous advisor, Steve Bannon, which consists of “creating a virtual and parallel world peppered with lies and half-truths that manages to dismantle any opposition strategy that is minimally rational.”
Likewise, Bannon conveyed the essential points of the populist ideology: short and xenophobic messages on social networks, worship of the leader and use of fake news to plunge the population into existential doubt.
Thus, Milei’s thinking does not take into account the contrary reasons, it only collects data or signs that confirm the prejudice to convert it into conviction and would include the essential points of the populist ideology: Manichaeism (Communism or freedom), cult of the leader and settlement of the “politically correct”.
Likewise, his controversial decisions and manifestations allow us to venture that we are faced with a typical case of megalomaniac paranoia, “understood as a delusion of grandeur that causes the individual to believe he is endowed with extraordinary talent and power because the deities have chosen him “for a high mission” (Save Argentina from the communist clutches and achieve economic recovery).
Milei’s electoral strategy was based on the technique of mass manipulation exposed by Edward L. Bernays in his book “Crystallizing Public Opinion”, in which he unravels the brain mechanisms of the group and the influence of propaganda as a method to unify your thinking.
Thus, according to L. Bernays, “the group mind does not think, in the strict sense of the word. Instead of thoughts, it has impulses, habits and emotions. When deciding, your first impulse is normally to follow the example of a leader you trust”, so Milei’s propaganda was directed not at the individual subject but at the Group in which the personality of the one-dimensional individual is diluted and remains wrapped in fragments of false created expectations and common desires that sustain it.
Milei and economic neoliberalism
The Argentine economy would be suffocated by the stratospheric amount of its Debt, estimated at nearly $406 billion in July 2023.
Consequently, Mauricio Macri accepted the IMF’s proposals in 2018 to secure an economic loan estimated at nearly $57 billion, leaving Argentina hostage to the IMF.
This amount was unaffordable for the Central Bank of Argentina, which would have limited liquid dollar reserves, so Argentina and the IMF would have started negotiations to restructure the total amount of the debt, and a write-off of the Argentine debt for the IMF with the counterpart of severe cuts in public spending by the Milei Government.
Thus, following the dictates of Macri and the Argentine economic establishment, Milei will implement the traditional neoliberal recipes of suppression or drastic reduction of taxes to attract countless national and foreign companies as well as a drastic cut in State expenses in scholarships, unemployment, retirement and soup kitchens.
Likewise, it will proceed to privatize education and healthcare for the sake of sacrosanct freedom of choice, condemning public educational centres to become obsolete ghettos and public healthcare to overcrowding and saturation.
The neoliberal recipes at the economic level will have as collateral effects the disproportionate increase in unemployment and precarious work, the progressive loss of purchasing power of workers, the suppression of the right to strike and the galloping increase in the underground economy and indices. of poverty of a population forced to live overcrowded in filthy homes and improvised slums.
Likewise, it will proceed to privatize education and healthcare for the sake of sacrosanct freedom of choice, condemning public educational centres to become obsolete ghettos and public healthcare to overcrowding and saturation.
The neoliberal recipes at the economic level will have as collateral effects the disproportionate increase in unemployment and precarious work, the progressive loss of purchasing power of workers, the suppression of the right to strike and the galloping increase in the underground economy and indices of poverty of a population forced to live overcrowded in filthy homes and improvised favelas.
Finally, we will witness a brutal crusade against the social achievements of Argentine society, which would include the illegalization of abortion and equal marriage.
However, according to the Argentine Central Bank, inflation in Argentina will continue to run rampant in 2023 (over 130%), which will cause the loss of competitiveness of Argentine products with the consequent constriction in exports and an increase in the trade deficit that will lead to a devastating unemployment rate of 13% expected for 2024.
Uncontrolled inflation leads to the loss of purchasing power of workers and pensioners, the contraction of domestic consumption and the discouragement of savings and the search for income outside of productive activities, which could lead to a productive desertification that would be unable to satisfy the demand for basic products.
Likewise, the Argentine economy will be more exposed to a possible appreciation of the dollar and the reversal of associated capital flows, which could repeat the “Lost Decade of Latin America” (1980s).
This will lead to a notable increase in the social instability that will have the unions General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and Central de los Trabajadores de la Argentina de los Trabajadores (CTA-T), as spearheads of the street struggle, to the increase in poverty rates (close to 40% of Argentines would be close to the poverty line), and a severe setback in democratic freedoms.
Argentina’s entry into the US orbit
Given the political myopia of the IMF in not applying a haircut to the Argentine debt inherited from Macri’s neoliberal stage, President Fernández began a rapprochement with Russia and China to stimulate mutual commercial transactions, as well as attract investments that seem essential to revive the battered Argentine economy.
Thus, during his visit to Vladimir Putin, Fernández offered him the possibility of being “the gateway to Latin America” and in his meeting with Xi Jinping, he confirmed Argentina’s adherence to the Belt and Road Project, which it could mean to Argentina, the chilling sum of 24 billion dollars in investments and the failure to pivot in the orbit of the United States.
This set off alarms in the Biden administration, which expressed its serious concern about the growing presence of China and Russia in the country and especially about the possibility that China would install a joint military base with Argentina in Ushuaia in exchange for Chinese financial support to install a gigantic logistics centre in the province of Tierra del Fuego.
Consequently, after the triumph of Milei, we will witness the distancing of Argentina from the Brics countries after Argentina enters into the Pacific Alliance and the veto of Chinese investments, as well as the installation of a joint US-Argentina base in Ushuaia to control the traffic of mega containers through the Drake Passage, which, together with the future installation of a pseudo-scientific base in Great Britain on the South Shetland Islands, will ensure maritime control along the Anglo-American axis of said route, which will be the alternative to Panama Canal.
By Germán Gorraiz López, Political analyst