President Javier Milei donned black leather and belted out rock songs Monday as he headlined a concert to mark the release of a book he hopes will revive his sagging fortunes.
La construcción del milagro (“The Making of the Miracle”), a 573-page tome composed mostly of Milei speeches from the past year, comes out as the right-winger endures the bumpiest stretch of his nearly two-year-old Presidency.
The La Libertad Avanza hopes the book will give him a boost ahead of October 26 national midterms, in which his minority party is hoping to boost its representation in Congress.
Last month he was forced to go cap in hand to Washington for financial assistance – Argentina is still waiting for a rescue – to end a run on the peso. It was sparked by concerns over his reform agenda following an election defeat in Buenos Aires Province.
Last week, Congress overturned vetoes of spending increases for public universities and emergency paediatric care, jeopardising his sacrosanct zero-deficit goal. On Wednesday, lawmakers voted to make it easier to overturn his presidential decrees.
The government is under growing pressure amid economic stagnation and rising social discontent.
Last weekend, José Luis Espert, one of the ruling party’s top candidates in the midterms, bowed out of the race due to his links to a suspected drug-trafficker.
Rock star vibe
With Monday's bizarre concert, Milei hoped to recapture the crazy rock star vibe he projected when he stormed to the Presidency in 2023.
Wrapped in the national flag, the 54-year-old economist shouted with a gravelly voice his way through around a dozen songs, accompanied by his own group, the "Banda Presidencial."
The band was made up of lawmakers, government officials and friends, including national deputy Alberto ‘Bertie’ Benegas Lynch on drums and his brother Joaquín Lynch on lead guitar, with Milei’s biographer Marcelo Duclós on bass and lawmaker Lilia Lemoine and singer Ana Tamagno on backing vocals.
With a rasping, guttural roar, Milei opened the performance with ‘Panic Show’ by La Renga and ‘Demoliendo Hoteles’ by Charly García – an artist many wouldn’t align with the libertarian’s ideology.
After performing nearly a dozen songs, Milei condemned a recent anti-Semitic attack against a woman and her son in Buenos Aires.
“We will not allow this xenophobia that the left is trying to impose,” he declared, before launching into the folk song ‘Hava Nagila,’ which drew a lukewarm response.
“Come on, this annoys the left!” he goaded the crowd at the 15,000-capacity arena.
Milei is not Jewish, but he has expressed affinity for Judaism.
He then urged the audience to chant “Cristina tobillera” – a mocking reference to the ankle monitor worn by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, his arch-rival, who has been serving house arrest since June following a corruption conviction.
The crowd did give a standing ovation when a large screen on the stage showed pictures of US President Trump and the recently slain right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Members of Las Fuerzas del Cielo (“The Forces of Heaven”) – a youth group that supports the President on social media – were present, dressed in dark red and carried Roman-style banners reading: “Heaven will crush them before us.”
“We have to decide whether to end 100 years of decline,” said Leonardo Saade, a 37-year-old tourism worker from Entre Ríos Province, who travelled with a group of fellow activists.
“The Argentine economic miracle is being studied in universities around the world,” he claimed.
Contrast
The President’s upbeat mood contrasted with the mood of residents in the middle-class neighbourhood of Villa Crespo, where the arena is situated.
Police erected a ring of steel around the concert hall to prevent clashes between anti- and pro-Milei demonstrators.
A banner erected on a nearby street slammed the sharp downturn in consumer spending since Milei took power and began slashing public spending.
"Milei, it's a miracle anyone comes in to buy anything," it read.
"The Making of the Miracle" is the 14th book by Milei, an economist and former TV pundit, who won office as a political outsider on a mission to end corruption and revive Argentina's dire economy.
He was the toast of the global right, hailed from lowering annual inflation from over 200 percent at the end of 2023 to 33 percent in August, and for balancing the budget for the first time in 14 years last year.
But his drastic austerity policies have left many of Argentina's most vulnerable on the breadline.
“I thought he knew something about economics, but he knows nothing,” said Rubén, a butcher working nearby who preferred not to give his surname. “Anyone can bring down inflation if no-one’s buying anything.”.
“This man lives in another country; he has no idea of the hunger people are suffering,” said Liliana Castelnovo, a 73-year-old retiree and cancer patient, who said she can no longer afford her medication.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
Comments