‘Disgusting ignoramus’, ‘Murderer’, ‘Fascist and communist’. All these are just small examples of a wave of insults and rudeness Argentina’s president Javier Milei has recently poured on heads of other states’ and political leaders. What is he up to? There are two possible versions and one of them is quite dramatic for Milei himself.
Argentina’s leader Javier Milei confirmed his image of an utterly eccentric figure. On May 19, Milei stated that ‘if the Spanish PM’s wife is suspected of corruption, the former is corrupt too’.
The investigation into the Spanish PM’s wife started already a month ago. According to sources of El Confidencial, a Spanish newspaper, Pedro Sánchez’s spouse Begoña Gómez ‘took advantage of her position to help several private companies acquire subsidies and sign lavish public contracts’. Whether these accusations are fair or not, Spain took Javier Milei’s words as an intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state. The scandal, which followed, made Madrid withdraw its ambassador from Argentina for consultations.
However, this is just the most recent example of such a rhetoric of the Argentinian leader. Javier Milei has been at the helm for less than half a year, yet he managed to show everyone, like no one else, that he has ‘a verbal enuresis’ as César Murúa, an Argentinian political scientist, has stated lately. This is not the most polite way to put it, however, it fully describes the style of Milei’s statements.
Milei began by calling the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro ‘an impoverished socialist’ at the Davos Forum, El País reports. Then in mid-March, he called the Venezuelan leadership ‘friends of terrorism’ through his spokesperson Manuel Adorni. Maduro paid back by calling Milei ‘a bandit’.
In a March interview to CNN, he dubbed the leaders of Cuba (Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel), Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega), Columbia (Gustavo Petro) ‘mean and worst’ presidents of all the Latin American states.
‘A bloodshed in Venezuela is something unprecedented, something like a prison in Cuba’, the Argentinian said. – ‘There are more examples of the type. For example, senior Petro’s Columbia: what one can expect from a communist and a murderer?’ Milei hinted at Petro’s past as a member of a guerrilla group.
Mexico’s president caught it bad later, too. ‘And Obrador? (Andrés Manuel López Obrador). He is just a vivid example of a miserable and disgusting ignoramus’. He even went as far as to insult Pope Francis whom Milei gave a tag of a Fascist and a communist at the same time.
In response to the insults voiced by ‘the world’s first libertarian president’, the Columbian government withdrew its ambassador from Buenos Aires for consultations and declared the expulsion of diplomats from the Embassy of Argentina in Bogotá.
Argentina’s president even brags about having been able to spoil relations with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, during his tenure. His ‘efforts’ hampered ties with Chile and Bolivia and caused a cooldown of relations with Peru and Ecuador.
Indeed, Columbia’s president assumed that his Argentinian colleague Javier Milei was trying hard ‘to destroy or postpone Latin America’s integration’. López Obrador branded Milei ‘a Fascist’ and added that ‘Maybe I am not very clever indeed, if I still do not understand how the Argentines, being so intelligent, elected someone despising them as a nation’.
‘Besides confrontation with Columbia, Mexico and Venezuela, Milei is causing tensions with Brazil and other neighbouring countries, which hurts economic and political avenues. His rude statements might fuse escalation in the Latin American co-existence. Which goes beyond mere divisions and can lead to an explosion’, reports the Columbian newspaper El Cambio.
Milei’s team members are trying to explain that by being rude their chief is trying to be straight and certain in expressing his opinion. Argentina’s MFA head Diana Mondino says Milei’s calling Petro a murderer and a terrorist is not an insult, but rather just ‘a description’.
Diplomats speak diplomatic language caring about every word. In contrast, Argentina’s president does not mince his words, and his supporters take it as a show of candour and the habit to speak plainly. It may be true, but there are obvious prerequisites for a complete ruining of relations with all neighbours – not for solid political reasons, but just because of vehement rhetoric.
Why does Argentina’s president need to quarrel with his neighbours throughout the continent? It is possible there are real political reasons. For example, to show he is different from other leaders of Latin American countries.
Let’s remember that the incumbent Argentinian leader’s only god is the United States. It is obvious that Milei favours the Monroe doctrine, according to which all the territories to the south of USA in the Americas are their ‘backyard’. The dollarization of Argentina’s economy he promised during his election campaign combined with privatization, which can be properly managed, can make ‘the Silver state’ a US outlet. Argentina is a weak element in the theoretical monolithic architecture of Latin American states, which the US can use as a leverage to change things to their own benefit. And Argentina can get a powerful patron.
However, things might be much easier. Honestly, one can simply take pity on Javier Milei as a human. The journalist Juan Luis González who has recently published a book about him titled El Loco (Crazy). Javier Milei, the Man Who Listens to His Dog writes that ‘the current president had quite a difficult childhood. He call his parents ‘would-be parents’ for a reason and tries to avoid telling more than ‘they are dead to me’ about them’.
‘Javier was a very lonely boy without friends. He did not have a sweet life – he kept hearing he was a loser. Violence was everywhere at his home: his father beat little Javier with a stick almost every day. He deliberately put the boy in situations, which ended in a failure.
Loneliness and lack of attachment caused Javier to make himself believe that his dog, Conan, was his son. They spent 15 Christmas and New Year holidays together. Just the two of them, a man and a dog. He even poured ‘his son’ a glass of champagne expecting he would drink it’. By the way, Milei had four dogs in his life. Conan is his fifth.
However, the politician’s human drama can lead to a political drama for the country he is heading. ‘I believe society’s discontent with Milei will increase.
Yes, he did win the election by doing what no one has ever done before: by promising an economic shift while having a minority in both chambers. But he is, by nature, an outsider and he can no longer change himself”, says the journalist predicting a grim political future for Milei. – Things are very bad in Argentina. Here are some striking figures after these five months of his office. The GDP has decreased by 10 per cent, the cumulative inflation rate for four months amounted to 101 per cent, the currency has devalued by 140 per cent, and poverty rates have grown by 12 per cent. Miley can be as unconventional and eccentric as he likes, but with ‘no food left in his fridge’ in a few months, he will see people revolt against his policies”.
As an outcome, it is highly likely that the political figure whose CV modestly states that he is a prominent economist, professor, author, will remain in history as a completely different specialist. A professor of statements, which better belong in backstreets than in international diplomacy. A champion of political arrogance.