Javier Milei’s forces exuded enthusiasm and faith in their leader, and the Argentine president, accompanied by leaders from different American and European countries who praised his Government, showed himself and spoke as the figure he most likes to embody: a leader of the extreme right. global. “We must put an end to the garbage of socialism once and for all,” Milei cried and attacked in particular the leaders of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, of Brazil, Lula da Silva, and of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, among others. “Today the world is breathing new winds of freedom” after Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, he hoped and stated that “it is a historic opportunity to change the world.” Along these lines, he considered that “the cultural battle” is central and called for the unity of the extreme right to “coordinate internationally so that lefties do not enter from anywhere.”
The stage was set by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a forum formed in the United States and empowered after the election of Trump as the future president of that country. For the first time, the CPAC met this Wednesday in Buenos Aires and gave the greatest role to Milei, who was in charge of closing the meeting.
At the Hilton Hotel, in the select neighborhood of Puerto Madero, from morning until dusk hundreds of people gathered who paid between 100 and 5,000 dollars to be part of it. Officials, legislators and militants from La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s party, a large majority of young men, filled the auditorium with their jackets, shirts and ties, with their hope placed on the project to scrap the State, fiscal adjustment and deregulation of the economy that the president represents.
The tone of the meeting was set from the start, at the opening, by the American couple Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the leaders of the CPAC who called for “defeating communism in Latin America and the entire world,” as she said, in correct Spanish. “Javier Milei is a lion, but we need more,” he asked, after including him in a list of ultra leaders: Donald Trump, the Italian Giorgia Meloni, the Hungarian Viktor Orbán and the Salvadoran Nayib Bukele.
In the successive speeches that would be heard later, the speakers mixed praise for Milei and the free market with diatribes against “socialism”, against gender policies and abortion. Many insisted that the fate of the Milei Government, its success or failure, will be key to the future of the region and the world.
Milei began by highlighting the work of the CPAC in the cultural battle because, according to his vision, what he calls socialism always failed economically but was “successful” in massifying its ideas. “They managed to impose the politically correct agenda,” he said and there he pointed out against Lula, Petro, the Uruguayan José Pepe Mujica, the Venezuelans Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, and the Cuban Fidel Castro. He also renewed his attack against the Government of Spain, after having unleashed a diplomatic conflict last May. This time he aimed against “[José Luis Rodríguez] shoemaker and [Pedro] Sánchez and other tortures that the poor Spaniards have.”
“Since their ideas are terrible, wherever they go they generate misery. That opened the opportunity for the world today, with the help of Donald Trump, Bukele and us, to breathe new winds of freedom,” Milei continued, amidst shouts and applause from his followers. So, he said, to change the world “it is not enough to manage well, to organize politically. It is also necessary to fight the cultural battle.”
Then, the Argentine president varied the usual script of his speeches and, emboldened by a meeting that seemed set to celebrate him and Trump, gave details of his political strategy, a kind of milleist decalogue of the exercise of power, in the formulation of which he allowed himself cite Vladimir Lenin as a source of authority. First, he insisted that it is preferable to “tell an uncomfortable truth” rather than “a comfortable lie.” “If the exit is unpleasant, it is better to get over it as soon as possible,” he said. He stated that “he doesn’t give a damn about the opinion of politicians on almost all issues.”
Another of his truths, he assured, is based on “being determined and practical, there is no need to be disgusted with exercising power, we must use the enemy’s weapons.” Since politics is not a zero-sum game, he added, “this means that the spaces of power that we do not occupy are occupied by the adversary, the left.” He said that the unity of his party is key and defended his aggressive style: “Fire is fought with fire and if they accuse us of being violent, I remind them that we are the reaction to 100 years of abuse. (…) If you go with good forms, what is going to happen? “They are going to pass them over.” From that argument, he questioned the “lukewarm” and “moderate”, an attack directed at his ally Mauricio Macri and his party, the PRO.
“Patriotic forces”
Among the speakers who presented during the day were Lara Trump, TV producer and daughter-in-law of Donald Trump; the Spanish Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox; Brazilian deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro; conservative activists Eduardo Verastegui and Ben Shapiro, and others. Two Argentine ministers also gave speeches, Luis Caputo (Economy) and Patricia Bullrich (Security). They could not be there but the ultra writer Agustín Laje, the former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and Steve Bannon, Trump’s former advisor, sent videos with their words, the last two prevented from leaving their countries by court order.
Everyone interspersed their praise for Milei and Trump with the topics of their most particular interest. Abascal was no exception. “The patriotic and anti-globalist forces are obtaining great victories in the main nations,” he assured and left his message about Spanish politics: he attacked the Socialist Party for having “a long criminal history” and also charged against the Popular Party, which he accused of agree with socialism. He then summarized his creed in a list of rejections: “No to massive and illegal immigration. No to climate fanaticism. No to wokism, gender ideology or the destruction of the family. “No to the corruption of minors in the classrooms.”
Outside the room where the speeches took place, the attendees enjoyed the service of lunchthey visited a stall selling books aimed at “libertarian” militancy, or took photos with the CPAC logo in the background: thumbs up, imitating the gesture that Milei repeats. The smiles and occasional conversations revealed the conviction that the Ultra Government is doing a good job. The CPAC meeting made it clear that Trumpism agrees. Steve Bannon was explicit: “Argentina is key in the global fight. The destiny of the South Americans is in the hands of Milei,” he said. He was referring, of course, to the fate of far-right ideas.
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