Who is Javier Millay, the new president of Argentina

His political opponent came out before the final results were announced and congratulated him on his victory.

Miley, a fan of the former American president Donald Trump and former tantric sex trainer, has said Argentina’s Central Bank should be abolished, believes climate change is a “socialist lie”, characterizes sex education as a conspiracy to destroy the family, believes selling human organs should be legal and wants to make it easier measures for owning a gun.

Analysts agree that the candidate from the ranks of political outsiders, who stood out for his harsh criticism of the “political caste”, achieved much better results than expected.

They dismissed him as a TV clown

Miley, who is similar to Trump, was initially dismissed by the political establishment as a funny TV clown. His parties will certainly have significant influence in Congress, during which Miley will have a strong platform for his unconventional economic views, writes “Reuters”.

Miley, who wears leather jackets, performs rock songs in front of his supporters, opposes abortion, has criticized pro-worker labor laws as a “cancer” and hailed American gangster Al Capone as a hero.

By the way, in his younger days he was a football goalkeeper, and it is interesting that he supported Boca Juniors for a while, then switched to rival River Plata.

“My house is like Kosovo”

Milej surprised the public when he became a relative winner in the presidential primaries at the end of August. As the New York Times writes, Milej thanked the dogs in his speech and mentioned Kosovo.

– They are my four-legged children,” said Miley, who lives with five mastiffs that he has called his children for a long time.

Interestingly, all five dogs are clones of his previous dog Conan, who was named after the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Since the first cloned dog was born in 2005, several companies in the US, China and South Korea have been cloning dogs. Having a cloned pet has long been a trend among the rich and eccentric.

Five clones of the dog Conan, who died in 2018, were born near the Texas city of Austin. The four dogs Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas were named after economists. As the New York Times writes, Millay then told an Argentinian portal that “Conan is literally his son, and the other four clones are like grandchildren.”

His mastiffs seem to be quite mischievous.

– My house is like Kosovo. In two weeks, they ate almost four armchairs – said Milej on Argentine television in 2018.

“Get rid of parasites”

During the celebration at the election headquarters, Milej promised that he would “put an end to the parasitic, corrupt and useless political caste that exists in this country,” AP reported.

– Today we took the first step towards the reconstruction of Argentina. A different Argentina is not possible with the same people – he said. He announced that he will abolish several ministries that he considers unnecessary.

Analysts had warned ahead of the election that a better-than-expected performance for Millay, a 52-year-old economist, would likely roil financial markets and send the Argentine peso plummeting amid uncertainty about what economic policies he might pursue.

Sunday’s vote was also seen as a national referendum on the candidate’s popularity among Argentines ahead of the October election. Millay, who has been a member of the lower house of Argentina’s Congress since 2021, was unopposed in the primary elections of his party La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances).

The results indicate that Argentina has become the latest country in the region where voters are looking to a candidate outside the political establishment as a way to express dissatisfaction with traditional politicians.

Discontent in the country

Sebastian Mazuca, an Argentine political scientist from Johns Hopkins University, blamed the current government’s economic mistakes for Miley’s victory, the Guardian reported.

– When the economic inefficiencies of Kirchnerist populism exhausted all possible economic resources, the result was high and uncontrolled inflation, poverty and suffering. Due to many minor mistakes, other Latin American governments have lost elections – he said, referring to former president Christina Kirchner.

Discontent is widespread in Argentina, which is struggling with annual inflation of 116 percent, growing poverty and a rapidly depreciating currency. Millay attracted support by calling for the peso to be replaced by the US dollar.

– I am very happy, we are looking for changes. We are tired of life as it is. All the countries that are dollarized — they have progressed and stopped inflation – Franco Lesertesur (19) told AP, while celebrating in front of Miley’s election headquarters in the center of Buenos Aires.

Voters in the main center-right opposition coalition, United for Change, also appear poised to shift further to the right, as former security minister Patricia Bullrich convincingly defeated a more centrist opponent, Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, AP reported.

– As Argentinians, we live with despair, fear, unable to dream, plan or live a normal life. But today we have a reason to work together, to introduce a profound change in Argentina, a change that abolishes corruption forever, paving the way for savings – said Patricia Bulrich.

Greetings from the neighborhood

After the announcement of the results in the preliminary round of elections, Millay received the support of his ultra-right colleagues from neighboring Brazil and Chile.

– We have a lot in common. We both defend family, private property, free market… We want to make our countries big, according to the (size) of our territory and population – said the former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro in a video message.

Chilean politician José Antonio Cast, who lost the 2021 presidential election in Chile to Gabriel Borić, congratulated via social media.

– For the good of Argentina, let the power of freedom win and let corruption, insecurity and mediocrity be defeated – he wrote on the X (Twitter) platform.