A libertarian president in Argentina?

Self-described libertarian Javier Milei surprised the world in Argentina's presidential open primary election last week by finishing first with 30 percent of the vote ahead of candidates for the country's dominant left- and right-wing parties.

Milei, the figurehead for La Libertad Avanza party is an Austrian economist and has called himself an anarchocapitalist and made a name for his fiery media appearances excoriating Argentina's "political caste" of "parasites." He's pledged to end the Argentina's central bank and dollarize the economy, privatize its social services, cut taxes, create education vouchers and abolish the health, education and environmental ministries. His opponents and many in the media have repeatedly described him as "far right" and "a new Trump." Latin American political analyst Daniel Raisbeck, on the other hand, paints a more nuanced picture and warns pundits not to "confuse Javier Milei with Jair Bolsanaro."

Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a conversation with author and radio and TV host Gloria Alvarez and Argentine economist Eduardo Marty to discuss the election, Milei's chances of victory in a country experiencing triple digit inflation, the culture war he's fighting in Argentina, and what his rise says for the prospects of libertarian ideas in Latin America.

Watch the stream on Reason's YouTube channel or on Facebook.

Sources referenced in this conversation:








00:00 Who is Javier Milei?
19:54 Why does U.S. media call Millei right-wing?
41:35 Milei’s anti-leftist rhetoric
1:08:49 Current state of the Argentine economy

[GmanG]

Wow! So this would be the first real “Libertarian” leader of a nation? This would be incredible!

[libertatempugnator]

This guy gives me hope. If he can do it in a socialist hellscape, we can do it here in the US.

[abramgaller]

Getting the Libertarian massage on a worldwide forum is great .

[estebandavidlopezmurillo]

48:05 I thought Gloria knew what Milei meant by "esthetic superiority of capitalism", he explains that in the same TED Talk showed at the beginning. He is referring to the overall architecture on both sides of the Iron Curtain, on the west side you have London, Paris, and NYC, and on the east side, everything is gray, brutalist. That's the "esthetic superiority of capitalism" that Milei means, nothing to do with the women

[aninterpreter]

Thanks Zach for your interest in Argentina. Javier Milei will be President of Argentina. He will be able to promote many positive changes.

[ElitePraetorianGuard]

Lets the invisable hand comb his hair.😂 I like this dude already.

[petepotr]

24:15 she is cranky because Manuel Laje challenged her on the abortion issue… she forgets that Argentina needs to solve economic issues first.
Gloria understand, there are no final words in liberalism. Milei is not talking about criminalizing women. Tell the truth.
Gloria, Milei says that the problem with drugs is “who is going to pay for the drug addict recovery?”

[Ivansanchezczo]

what a great interview! I congratulate you for your work, despite some wrong ideas poured from Gloria Alvarez is really nice to see Milei growing and impacting other countries as well. I hope that he win and my country recivies all this good politics about the economic aspect that we all need so much.

[MOPCLinguistica]

A single bird unfortunately does make summer. First we have to change the dominant mentality of the population. Then change will become inevitable.

[yofortinero]

Really, I feel very grateful to have a leader like Javier Milei in Argentina. "VIVA LA LIBERTAD CARAJO! Long live freedom, damn it!!

[Joseluiswellness]

Javier Milei's interview un Tucker Carson's show is considered the most viewed interview in the history of humanity with almost 370 million views... I almost could hear an enormous crack around the world when the Overton's window shifted several notches tours the ideals of freedom and liberty... Javier will figth to deliver what he promised or die triying. And there is a lesson for all Libertarian academics. The figth must move from the the intelectual/academic plane to the culture war and then to the political...

[Grequierecafe]

God, I think I’m learning something. I so want Milei to succeed for the sake of so many diverse peoples and interests. It’s not just about Argentina. I am in California, my home. I couldn’t vote for Milei, but I prayed real hard.Like me, people all over the world are looking for an example of liberty rising.😂

[marihutten]

Glória misunderstood Milei's view on abortion. Milei's view on abortion is based of the NAP, he considers killing the baby as not respecting the right to live of the baby. He has talked about it in one of his free cátedras. He used to host this TV show where people could come in and ask him questions for him to answer from a libertarian perspective. I highly recommend, he's such an interesting person.

[josejosejose]

Impecable Eduardo. Triste lo de Gloria de no poder quitar el foco de sus asuntos feministas por sobre el debate esencial de la charla. En todas sus intervenciones no pudo contenerse y volvió a lo mismo. Hay que saber ver las prioridades que necesita Argentina y América Latina, Gloria, más allá de tu batalla feminista.

[gringopablo]

Javier Milei is not just an economist, specialized in economic growth and good with numbers, that worked as head leader department for one of the main mutinational enterprises in the continent (America Corporation). He's also an intellectual thinker, writer and university/college professor. Hence, his academical knowledge and vocabulary.

Although "dark forces" (old political parties, corrupt businessmen and union leaders, mainstream media, the leftist, etc) are working against him, we still hope he can became the next Argentina's president. Because the next years are going to be harder and painful than ever. He's our last hope!

[axelmaldini]

Javier Milei is a great writer (he has written 11 excellent books) and a top level economist based on the Austrian school of economics. He is an advisor to the most important economic groups in Argentina. It happens that Communism has ruined the country in the last 40 years! Milei is a patriot, very effusive, temperamental and very Argentinean, the way he speaks is not in accordance with the North American idiosyncrasy since here in the USA effusiveness is frowned upon. Milei will be moderate when he wins the Presidency and many years of prosperity are coming for this great country!

[JDYTC]

Argentina 🇦🇷 *defaulted 9 times since* its independence in *1816* 📉 That is an average of exactly *once every 23 years* 🤯 Finally they are thinking of trying something else 🙏

[Imnus]

Gloria Alvarez isn't a libertarian, she's just a progressive liberal.

[tsacripanti]

Here in Argentina the young people have basically no opportunities, there are no job opportunities, the salaries are too low to start making plans to the future and planning to start a family or even to live alone covering your own spending, there is a great exodus of young people from Argentina going into another countries, mostly to Italia/Spain which are the countries that our grand-grandparents came from when WW2 started. But all the youth now is supporting Milei, he has catalyzed all the rage and impotence from the people who was tired of socialist governments and make a great election for the presidentials. I started to have faith for this country because the young minds are starting to shift their mentality to a more libertarian instead of a socialist one and hopefully 10/20 years from now Argentina will become what always had to be, a World Power Country with a great living standard. We have everything to be a first class country, we have lands, great places for tourism, natural resources, intelligent people but it just needs the right mentality of its citizens to leverage all that into the success of a nation.

[robertlaburante]

With the triumph of Javier Milei we are full of joy and hope in Argentina, the youth loves him because he is authentic and not a lying politician, starting December 10, Argentines must work to fix the destruction left by Socialism and it will never return further.