Last month marked a year since Javier Milei became president of Argentina. His eccentric demeanor, colorful past, and rhetorical skills made him famous during his presidential campaign. Some even said he was a combination of a preacher and a rock star. After taking office, he became a global star. The anniversary is an ideal opportunity to take a closer look at his first year in office.
Jaroslav Bílek
January 22, 2025
Milei is an academic economist by profession. He has not authored any groundbreaking theories, but he has had a successful career as a media commentator. In 2018, long before his candidacies for congress and for president, he was a frequent guest in the Argentine media, making hundreds of appearances. In addition, he has been a tantric sex teacher, cloned his dogs, and played in several rock bands. All of these things, not fitting the image of a boring academic in an ivory tower, increased his appeal to voters.
Milei is economically very liberal, which significantly distinguishes him from his political competitors. In addition, he does not come from a family that belongs to the country’s political caste or bureaucratic elite. Moreover, Milei was bullied and abused as a child, which certainly did not make his path to the presidential palace any easier. In addition to being a staunch advocate of the free hand of the market, he became famous primarily for his criticism of communists, Pope Francis, the left, and traditional politicians. From a political science perspective, he clearly fits into the category of populist outsiders who lack extensive political experience and try to attract attention with their charisma and by criticizing the elites.
Populist outsiders often manage to win presidential office in Latin America, but the results of their tenure tend to be poor. Due to their lack of extensive political experience, they usually cannot function within the framework of democratic politics or negotiate with the legislature and other political parties. They also usually cannot rely on the support of a party of their own, either due to its irrelevance or because there is not one. In recent decades, populist outsiders in Latin America have been associated primarily with the degradation of democracy in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Milei was the protest choice for many voters. Many Argentines did not vote for him because they believed in his ideas or knew them in detail. They above all wanted change and to hold the Peronists accountable for their long-term failure in government to address the poor economic situation and corruption. Voters also felt that Milei was authentic, even when they disagreed with his political views. His behavior attracted voters primarily, but his political program was clearly informed by his liberal economic views.
Due to his professional background and the dire economic situation in Argentina, his program was mainly economically oriented. He promised economic recovery through heavy cuts in government spending and shock therapy, symbolized by his most famous campaign stunt featuring a chainsaw. His liberal economic ideology and opposition to communism and socialism is reflected in his cultural and social positions. He is a critic of neo-Marxism and feminism. During the campaign, he attracted attention with the idea that it should be legal to sell one’s vital organs.
Milei in Office
Immediately after his election victory, many observers, experts, and analysts warned that Milei would be a risk to Argentina’s democracy or voiced concerns about his economic plan. He was often depicted by the media as a radical-right populist, and indeed he sought to appeal to conservative and far-right voters, and he cooperates with politicians from this camp in Argentina and abroad. However, Thomas Kestler concluded that the label of radical-right populist, at least as it is understood in Europe, does not fit Milei. Milei consistently shows sympathy toward other radical right-wing populists like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. However, compared to Bolsonaro, he has a more liberal view on topics like family, sexuality, or drugs.
Moreover, compared to other right-wing populists in the region, he does not vindicate earlier military dictatorship. When Milei looks to Argentina’s history for inspiration, he refers not to the last right-wing military government in 1970s and early 1980s but to President Carlos Menem, who was in power afterward and is known for his neoliberal economic reforms. Nevertheless, Milei’s government has introduced the new anti-picket security protocol that authorizes federal forces to suppress street protests and prevent roadblocks, commonly referred to as “pickets”. To date, this change has not significantly affected the quality of democracy in Argentina. Clashes between police forces and protesters often occur but violence has not been deadly.
Concerns about the introduction of harsh economic reforms were justified, even if Milei’s success in this was not a given, considering his status as a political outsider, lack of experience with political negotiations, and his party lacking majority in both chambers of Congress. Despite the odds, he managed to win the support of Congress for just over 200 reform proposals. Although he had initially intended to pass 600, this is still a notable result, showing him to be a negotiator able to cooperate with actors he derogatorily described as a political caste during the campaign.
So far, Milei’s planned cuts are going well in some places and worse in others. Cutting the number of ministries from 18 to eight and abolishing the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity was covered widely by the media across the world. However, these were rather cosmetic changes. Milei has only abolished around 30,000 state jobs during his first year; by contrast, in 2020 3.2 million people worked for the state.
Milei’s fight against inflation has produced clearer results. In October 2024, inflation was at 2.7 percent, the lowest level in the previous three years, down from 8.3 percent in October 2023. This, however, has come at the cost of consumer spending falling by 20 percent, food and housing prices rising, and 52.9 percent of the population living in poverty. Although high levels of poverty have been a problem in the past, the figure is worse today than it was before Milei became president, when 41.7 percent lived in poverty. The economic stagnation is also illustrated by the fact that 200,000 people in the construction industry lost their jobs in the first year of Milei’s presidency. Culture, science, research, and the social sector have not been spared major cuts. For instance, funding for public universities has been frozen at the 2023 level, and academic salaries have lost about 50 percent of their purchasing power.
Where Milei firmly shines is the international arena, in part due to his reform efforts. During his first year in office, he has visited right-wing politicians and think tanks in Europe and the United States. He has also strongly supported Israel, Ukraine, and the struggle for democracy in Venezuela, matching his words with action. For instance, many countries in Latin America have significant stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons but Argentina is the only one to have sent such heavy military equipment to Ukraine in the form of two military helicopters.
Ultimately, domestic politics is the bread and butter for presidential popularity. Luckily for Milei, optimism is growing among a large part of the Argentine public. For instance, in December 2024, 41 percent said they believed that the economic conditions in their city or area were improving, compared to 25 percent a year earlier. Support for the president and his government is also not negligible, reaching 47 percent in November 2024, despite the drastic nature of the reforms implemented.
To what extent these figures are influenced by the country’s political polarization or other factors, is uncertain. However, they suggest that Milei has been successful in overcoming some of the structural difficulties he faced. This shows that he is not just an eccentric populist outsider but also someone with a particular practical political talent.
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Author:
Jaroslav Bílek is a research fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague. His research interests cover authoritarian politics, electoral manipulation, international linkages, and civil-military relations.
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Photo credit: Marco Iacobucci Epp via Shutterstock
