To the Right, To the Right: Argentina Struggles to Find its Center

Former mayor of Buenos Aires turned presidential candidate Horacio Rodriguez Larreta spoke to Georgetown students on October 9 about President Javier Milei and the rise of the far right in Argentina. 

Milei’s win wouldn’t have been possible four years ago, according to Larreta. However, as Argentina faces an inflation rate of nearly 300 percent and poverty rate of 55 percent, voters are turning away from the status quo of Peronist (the previously dominant political ideology) candidate Sergio Massa and towards political outsiders like Milei, according to Time and El País. 

Larreta lamented, “People in Argentina didn’t want politics. They didn’t want politicians.”  Milei, who had no political endorsements going into the race, won 56 percent of the popular vote and 16 out of 24 provinces, per Reuters. Larreta, who ran for Republican Proposal (PRO) party, said he regrets not fighting back against Milei’s attacks and promoting his campaign more on social media. “You enter into that scenario in which you feel already won, and you don’t risk anything,” Laretta said. 

Brooke Duncan, a first-year student in the SFS who previously lived in Argentina, said, “Prior to this event, how Milei was elected had always been a question in the back of my mind. […] Larreta’s emphasis on the Argentine people’s distrust of politicians, and Milei’s capitalization of this, clarified many of the doubts I had held previously.”

Milei assumed the presidency on December 10. During his campaign, he promised to close the Central Bank, get rid of CEPO (which regulates the selling of securities in the capital market with foreign currency), and dollarize the economy, write the BBC and the Buenos Aires Herald. Milei hasn’t followed through on any of these radical proposals, which Larreta explained would have worsened the economy. Instead, Milei funded the Central Bank and increased the peso’s value by 70 percent. Most notably, according to El País, he achieved zero deficit, a feat practically unheard of in Argentine history, and a 16.2 percent decline in the monthly inflation rate from when he assumed office. 

However, Larreta thought that zero deficit came too quickly and at too high a cost. Milei reduced government spending by over 35 percent, reports the BBC, cutting funding to energy (gas, electricity, and water), transportation, and social security and eliminating 25,000 bureaucrats and swaths of bureaucratic agencies. Milei also halted all public works for a year, so both construction and industrial production rates plummeted. The lack of funding for critical infrastructure has resulted in mass protests and hurt Milei’s approval, according to Reuters. 

Like many far right leaders,  Milei built his popularity appealing to the people and attacking state institutions and those in it. Because of this,  Milei has no political support to fall back on when his ratings go down. Larreta warned that “congress will evict him” if polls continue to slip. 

Milei cannot rely on international support, either. So far, he has refused to attend meetings of MERCOSUR, a South American trade bloc, and criticized leaders of major trading partners like Brazil and China, report Diario de Cuba and the BBC. Milei’s hostile oratory style has caused international relations to break down, depriving Argentina of foreign investment it might have received while stabilizing inflation. Larreta condemned this behavior as destructive to the state: “He gives more importance to what Elon Musk says than what Argentina needs.” 

Larreta suggested that Milei gain insider support and form a coalition with Peronist Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the former president of Argentina and a leader in the Citizen’s United Party. Even so, Larreta expressed doubts over the possibility of such a coalition and the return to moderation in general: “I don’t know if it’s possible.” Duncan said, “I was surprised at Larreta’s willingness to admit that he did not have all of the answers, nor was he sure what the ‘correct’ path forward is.”

 Milei is one of many far right leaders who have come into power over the last decade. Alongside Donald Trump in the United States, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, and many others, Javier Milei represents a worldwide swing to the right. Politicians are increasingly exploiting public frustration over the economy and political instability to gain votes. Larreta warned that populist leaders could only fuel anger towards the system, not fix the system itself: “They are successful in winning an election. They fail in governing.”