A right-wing former ‘tantric sex coach’ who has been compared to Donald Trump and who wants to adopt the US dollar has been elected president of Argentina in what has been described as a ‘political earthquake’.
Javier Milei, who uses a medium to communicate with his dead dog for advice on political matters, beat Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa in Sunday’s polarized presidential runoff dominated by the country’s dire economy.
Massa conceded before the electoral authority released results, which saw the right-wing populist Milei win some 56 percent to his rival’s 44 percent with 99.4 percent of the votes counted.
Massa congratulated his opponent, a right-wing economist known as ‘el Loco’ – or the Madman – who promised a shake-up for the nation and has welcomed frequent comparisons of him to Trump.
With his victory on Sunday night, the fiery lawmaker, 53, has thrust Argentina into the unknown regarding just how extreme his policies will be, following a campaign that saw him revving a chainsaw to symbolically cut the state down to size.
In a speech following his dramatic victory, he vowed that the ‘reconstruction of Argentina begins today’ while adding he would ‘drain the swamp’ in reference to stemming the influence of special interests and lobbyists.
Milei, who often dresses up as his superhero alter-ego ‘General AnCap’ which is short for anarcho-capitalist, made his name furiously denouncing the ‘political caste’ on television programs.
His pledge for abrupt, severe change resonated with Argentines weary of annual inflation soaring above 140% and a poverty rate that reached 40%. He will take power on December 10.
As the results were revealed, former President Trump responded with praise for Milei, who is against abortion and sex education, in multiple posts to his Truth Social account Sunday evening, with a twist on his famous ‘Make America Great Again’ catchphrase.
A pro-Trump libertarian with no prior government experience and a resume that includes work as a ‘tantric sex coach’ has been elected president of Argentina
Newly elected President of Argentina Javier Milei of La Libertad Avanza kisses his girlfriend and actress Fatima Florez after the polls closed in the presidential runoff on November 19
Supporters of Javier Milei, celebrate his victory in the presidential election runoff at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires on November 19
Supporters of presidential candidate Javier Milei gather outside his campaign headquarter after Economy Minister Sergio Massa, candidate of the Peronist party, conceded defeat in the presidential runoff election in Buenos Aires on Sunday night
Milei, who often dresses up as his superhero alter-ego ‘General AnCap’ which is short for anarcho-capitalist (pictured), made his name furiously denouncing the ‘political caste’ on television programs
‘Congratulations to Javier Milei on a great race for President of Argentina. The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!’
He also posted a photo of Milei posing with the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag, considered a symbol of right-wing libertarian politics, again writing: ‘Make Argentina Great Again!’
Following his election win, Milei, who believes poor people would be free to sell their body parts, said: ‘Argentina’s situation is critical. The changes our country needs are drastic. There is no room for gradualism, no room for lukewarm measures.’
Crowds chanted ‘Liberty, liberty!’ and ‘Let them all leave’ as Milei claimed victory, in a reference to the country’s political class on Sunday night.
In the streets of Buenos Aires, drivers honked their horns and many took to the streets to celebrate in several neighbourhoods. Outside Milei’s party headquarters, a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, a party kicked off with supporters singing, buying beers and setting off colourful smoke bombs.
Milei has surged to power on a wave of anger over decades of economic mismanagement, vowing to ditch the peso for the US dollar, shut down the central bank and slash spending. He has promised ‘the end of Argentina’s decline’ and warned there is no time for ‘gradualism… or half-measures.’
The country will swing to the right amid discontent over soaring inflation and rising poverty. Inflation is at 143 per cent, net reserves of foreign currency are deep in the red, savers are ditching the peso, and a recession is looming – if not already here.
Four in 10 Argentines live in poverty and a sharp peso devaluation is likely.
It will empower a freshman lawmaker, who describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist and got his start as a TV talking head blasting what he called the ‘political caste.’
Milei, who is also a prominent economist and radio chat-show host, has spoken openly about his preference for threesomes and how he enjoys communicating via telepathy with his dead dog for political advice.
He failed to win the primary round of voting ahead of the runoff election, but came in second to Massa in large part due to support from young voters who are so disenchanted with more ‘conventional’ politicians that they have turned to a man whose recent biography was titled El Loco, or The Madman.
A political unknown until a few years ago, Milei was elected to Argentina’s parliament in 2021 as a member of La Libertad Avanza (‘Freedom Advances’).
He prefers to call himself an anarcho-capitalist, which means he’d like to rip up as much government intervention as he can and leave it all to the free market.
‘If I had to choose between the state and the mafia, I would choose the mafia,’ he once said. ‘Because the mafia has codes, the mafia adapts, the mafia doesn’t lie. And above all, the mafia competes.’
His ‘chainsaw plan’ to slash the bloated state includes getting rid of Argentina’s public health and education systems along with shuttering ten out of 18 government departments.
Milei is also so anti-progressive he has repeatedly taken aim – rather bizarrely – at Pope Francis, his compatriot, calling him a ‘f***ing communist’, ‘communist turd’ and the ‘representative of the evil one on Earth’ in brutal social media posts, simply because of his perceived support for ‘social justice’ and policies to help the poor.
With his victory on Sunday night, the fiery lawmaker, 53, has thrust Argentina into the unknown regarding just how extreme his policies will be, following a campaign that saw him revving a chainsaw to symbolically cut the state down to size
Argentine president-elect Javier Milei greets supporters prior to his speech following his win in the runoff election, in Buenos Aires on Sunday
Newly elected President of Argentina Javier Milei of La Libertad Avanza celebrates with his sister Karina Milei after the polls closed in the presidential runoff on Sunday
Argentine president-elect Javier Milei’s supporters celebrate after Milei wins the runoff presidential election, in Buenos Aires, on Sunday
A recent biography by journalist Juan Luis González revealed Milei studies telepathy in his spare time and has a medium to communicate with his dog Conan, who died in 2017, asking him for advice on political matters.
‘Jesus didn’t pay taxes,’ Milei memorably tweeted.
His private persona appears to match the public image of an unpredictable eccentric.
At home he keeps four 200lb English Mastiffs. All named after famous right-wing economists – and each one cloned from a fifth, now-dead dog named Conan (after the Barbarian).
A recent biography by journalist Juan Luis González revealed Milei studies telepathy in his spare time and has a medium to ‘communicate’ with Conan, who died in 2017, asking him for advice on political matters.
Milei hasn’t denied the claims. ‘What I do in my house is my business,’ he told a Spanish newspaper.
Not that he’s usually so secretive.
Milei, who is single and has never married, proudly says he used to be an instructor of tantric sex – a slow, meditative form of intercourse based on Eastern philosophies where the end goal is not orgasm but enjoyment of the process – and could go a full three months without ejaculating.
He’s also talked openly about having threesomes.
As a teenager, Milei sang in a rock band that knocked out Rolling Stones covers. He still behaves like a wannabe rock star now, strutting around on the election trail in a black leather jacket shaking an unruly mane of thick black hair that is so peculiar it has earned him a nickname: The Wig.
Milei grew up in Buenos Aires where his father was a bus driver and later a transport sector businessman. Milei claims his parents, Norberto and Alicia, physically and verbally abused him when he was young. (Pictured: Milei in his youth).
Even so, he has called Conan the greatest love of his life, an animal he so cherished that during a financially tough period he survived only on pizza so Conan had enough to eat.
The dog is closely followed in Milei’s affections by his younger sister, Karina, who he has vowed to make his First Lady if he becomes president.
When a political opponent called him ‘a disheveled panelist who screams on a stage and sleeps with eight dogs and his sister’ during a debate, Milei’s only response was to say: ‘I don’t have eight dogs’.
As a teenager, Milei sang in ‘Everest’, a rock band that knocked out Rolling Stones covers.
He often wears a black leather jacket shaking an unruly mane of thick black hair that is so peculiar it has earned him a nickname: The Wig.
Milei says he never combs the hairdo and that only his party’s vice president, Lilia Lemoine, a keen cosplayer, is authorized to style it.
He grew up in Buenos Aires where his father was a bus driver and later a transport sector businessman. Milei claims his parents, Norberto and Alicia, physically and verbally abused him when he was young. As an adult, he didn’t speak to them for a decade. ‘They are dead to me,’ he has said.
At school, he reportedly had no friends, and often boiled over in notorious angry outbursts.
Supporters of presidential candidate for La Libertad Avanza Javier Milei celebrate after the polls closed in the presidential runoff on Sunday in Buenos Aires
Supporters of presidential candidate for La Libertad Avanza Javier Milei celebrate after the polls closed in the presidential runoff on Sunday
Argentine president-elect Javier Milei’s supporters celebrate after Milei wins the runoff presidential election, in Buenos Aires, on Sunday
He later studied to be an economist but found the dry life of academia wasn’t for him.
Then, around five years ago, he suddenly tried his luck on Argentina’s beloved daytime TV chat shows – and producers quickly realized viewers couldn’t get enough of his demented claims about his sexual stamina and his brazen political opinions.
Raised a Catholic and now said to be converting to Judaism, his views on abortion are conservitve: wanting to ban terminations in every case except when a mother’s life is in danger.
Though, while he may be staunchly opposed to pro-choice views when it comes to pregnancy, he’s proposed a controversial ‘market mechanisms’ to deal with long waiting lists for transplants, arguing that organs are a person’s property to sell as they choose.
He wants to see Argentina ditch the peso and adopt the US dollar as its national currency, slash taxes, privatize state-owned companies and scrap subsidies.
As for foreign policy, he believes his natural allies would be the US and Israel, saying: ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with the communists of Cuba, China and North Korea.’
On the ever thorny question of the Falkland Islands, which Argentina unsuccessfully tried to grab from Britain in 1982 during the prime ministership of Margaret Thatcher, one of his icons, Milei proposes copying the UK’s transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Milei’s screeds resonated widely with Argentines angered by their struggle to make ends meet, particularly young men.
Presidential candidate of the Liberty Advances coalition Javier Milei speaks to journalist after voting
Economy Minister and presidential hopeful Sergio Massa speaks to journalists after voting
Milei has vowed to make his younger sister, Karina (pictured), his First Lady if he becomes president
Massa, as one of the most prominent figures in a deeply unpopular administration, was once seen as having little chance of victory.
But he managed to mobilize the networks of his Peronist party and clinched a decisive first-place finish in the first round of voting.
His campaign cautioned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to eliminate key ministries and otherwise sharply curtail the state would threaten public services, including health and education, and welfare programs many rely on.
Massa also drew attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and openly questioned his mental acuity; ahead of the first round, Milei sometimes carried a revving chainsaw at rallies.
But Milei accused Massa and his allies of running a ‘campaign of fear’ and he walked back some of his most controversial proposals, such as loosening gun control.
In his final campaign ad, Milei looks at the camera and assures voters he has no plans to privatize education or health care.
‘We did a great job despite the fear campaign and all the dirty tactics they used against us,’ Milei told journalists after he voted amid a large security operation as dozens of supporters and journalists gathered at his polling place.