Argentina elects libertarian economist Javier Milei, who cloned his dog, as president

Javier Milei, a libertarian economist and former tantric sex teacher, became Argentina’s elected president on Sunday, promising in his victory speech to end government corruption and turn the country into a world power.

As a La Libertad Avanza candidate, he defeated Sergio Massa, the center-left Economy Minister, 55.7 to 44.3 in the second round of the election and will take office next month.

His victory makes him one of the few libertarians elected as world leaders and the only one currently holding office.

Milei, 53, ran an upstart campaign against Massa, the Peronist establishment candidate, promising to adopt the dollar and abandon the peso to curb 124 percent inflation, as well as re-criminalize abortion and privatize the rivers. country as a way to stop pollution. .

Argentine president-elect Javier Milei kisses his girlfriend Fátima Florez after winning the second round of voting on Sunday. Florez makes a living impersonating various politicians, including former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.AP Supporters of Javier Milei demonstrate in front of his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires after his victory on Sunday.AP

The populist has been compared for his enormous public personality and roots in television fame to former President Trump. His supporters wore Make Argentina Great Again caps, while at extravagant rallies he wielded a chainsaw and promised to use it against corruption and the country’s bloated bureaucracy.

Milei’s campaign took advantage of how decades of center-left Peronist government had impoverished the country, with two in five below the poverty line, and the entire country facing rampant inflation over which interest rates above 100% would not. have had no effect.

He won votes especially among young people, in a country where the minimum voting age is 16 years. Young people in particular responded enthusiastically to Milei’s spectacle on social media and in television interviews, and to her promises of change in a country hard hit by extreme poverty. and triple-digit inflation.

“The way Milei speaks, I believe everything she says. She has a way of expressing herself that reaches people,” Tomás Kremenchuzky, 17, from Beunos Aires, told Reuters.

Javier Milei talks to an Argentine television presenter about his beloved mastiff Conan. Milei spent $50,000 to clone Conan at an animal genetic preservation facility in upstate New York. lasexta.com Milei brought his cloned pets to television when they were still growing. He has five clones in total, one named Conan after the original English mastiff and four named after free-market economists he admires.

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And he lashed out at a center-left ruling class that he called a “caste” that had plundered the country, declaring in his victory speech: “Today is the end of Argentine decadence.”

The country’s prolonged economic crisis was a major weakness for his opponent Massa, who had overseen it under the current president, Alberto Fernández, who has virtually disappeared from public life in recent months.

Milei also called China a “killer” for its impact on the Argentine economy and said he wanted to cut ties with both Beijing and Brazil, Argentina’s other largest trading partner.

However, Chinese leaders called to congratulate him on Monday and pledged to work with Argentina, which faces a $44 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund.

Milei has spoken of her love for Conan, her dead dog, and showed a painting of him during the election campaign.@juanelegonzalez/X Milei credits her sister Karina (left) with the role of Aaron to her Moses and calls her “the boss ”. because of her political marketing instincts.REUTERS

At the last minute he abandoned a promise to allow a free market in human organs and children, which he had previously said “were being trafficked anyway.”

The populist also scaled back some of his most incendiary rhetoric in a campaign ad ahead of Sunday’s vote: “We are not going to privatize healthcare. We are not going to privatize education. We are not going to privatize football. “We are not going to allow the carrying of weapons without restrictions.”

The wild-haired Milei has reveled in his nicknames “La Peluca” and “El León” for his lush locks, and as a teenager he was known as “El Loco” or “el loco” for his outbursts on and off the field. soccer. a nickname he has also adopted.

And he has made his love for his late dog Conan, a 200-pound English mastiff, a centerpiece of his populist rise, holding up a painting of the mascot on the campaign trail.

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Milei’s fans wear fake wigs and chainsaws, and Milei even recruited a fake bodyguard. Milei has taken delight in her nicknames, including “The Peluca” and “The Lion.” AP Nicknamed “the crazy one,” economist Javier Milei catapulted to victory by promising to reduce the country’s bloated federal bureaucracy.REUTERS

He had Conan cloned in upstate New York after his death in 2017. The cloning cost $50,000, the New York Times reported, and, unusually, resulted in a litter of five puppies instead of a single clone.

Four of the mastiffs (Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas) are named after free market economists Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas and Murray Rothbard.

The other is named Conan after the original animal, whom an unauthorized biography, “The Fool,” claims he still speaks to.

Milei calls the dogs his “four-legged children,” or grandchildren, and says he preferred the company of the original Conan, named after the hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to his own family.

Milei and her sister Karina were raised by Norberto Milei, a bus driver, and Alicia, a housewife, in a middle-class home in Buenos Aires. She has said that his father beat and psychologically abused him.

His girlfriend Fátima Florez is a 42-year-old comedian who impersonates other politicians. The two met on a chat show and on Instagram she goes by “Your Leona.” @ javiermilei / Instagram Florez has also impersonated Milei, wearing a wig like many of her followers do. She may not become first lady, as the president-elect has proposed that her sister take the position. @Javiermilei/Instagram

“All those beatings I received as a child mean that, today, I am not afraid of anything,” Milei said during the campaign, adding that “[my father] “He always told me that I was trash, that I was going to die of hunger.”

Milei said she cut off communication with her parents between 2010 and 2020, but Karina negotiated a reconciliation during the pandemic. Her father appeared at a campaign rally for Milei’s birthday and called her son “a genius.”

Mieli is toying with the idea of ​​installing Karin, 50, who owned a tire repair shop and sold cakes before working for her brother’s coalition, as the South American country’s next first lady.

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The president-elect has called Karina Milei, 50, “the soul” of his libertarian presidential campaign. He refers to her in public as “the boss” and has praised her skill as a political marketer.

“Moisés was a great leader but not a great communicator,” he told an Argentine interviewer during the campaign. “God sent Aaron to be the communicator. “I am to Kari what Aaron is to Moses.”

Milei leaned into memes as part of his campaign, posting a Make Argentina Great Again meme on Instagram that shows him, former President Trump in a MAGA hat, and defeated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a Brazil-themed version. When Taylor Swift came to town earlier this month, fans covered the area around the stadium with signs reading “Swifties don’t vote for Milei.”

Karina also taught herself to become a medium so she could facilitate communications between her brother and Conan after the mastiff’s death in 2017, according to reports.

If she becomes first lady it would be in place of her girlfriend Fátima Florez, a comedian who satirizes famous politicians. Among her main targets is former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner.

The two started dating this year after meeting on a chat show and she calls herself “your lioness” on Instagram, sporting a Milei wig like her most ardent fans.

As a teenager, Milei was a semi-professional soccer goalkeeper and played in a Rolling Stones cover band, before turning to economics, in which he has two degrees, and then becoming a regular presence on television, first speaking about economics and then about sex.

In 2017, he said on a panel that he had had regular threesomes, “90% of them” with two women, and that he was also a “tantra teacher,” and later talked about his practice in detail.

He entered politics in 2020, comparing the Argentine State to the mafia.

“If I had to choose between the State and the mafia, I would choose the mafia, because the mafia has codes, the mafia complies, the mafia does not lie and, above all, the mafia competes,” he stated.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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