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Javier Gerardo Milei became President of the Argentine Republic after a runoff election, in which most of those who voted for him did so primarily in opposition to the Kirchnerist candidate, Sergio Massa. In other words, the 56 percent of voters who backed Milei are not libertarians, and neither are the members of his party, La Libertad Avanza. This is evident when observing the public statements and political backgrounds of the small group of national deputies and senators Milei has at his disposal.
Indeed, according to the Nolan Chart, a simple political test with 20 questions divided into two dimensions (social and economic) Milei’s government and La Libertad Avanza classify as conservative, far removed from the idealistic image of libertarianism.
The answers to each of the 20 questions on the Nolan Chart offer three options, and the final result determines whether a person is liberal, progressive (left-wing), conservative (right-wing), centrist, or totalitarian.
The questions cover the following topics: Freedom of expression, Religion, Military service, Sex, Drugs, Security, Discrimination, Immigration, Nation, Environment, Globalization, Taxes, Pensions, Solidarity, Permits, Unions, Healthcare, Banks, Large-scale retail, and the Labor market.
On questions relating to economic freedoms, Milei’s positions are liberal; but when it comes to personal freedoms, they are conservative or even totalitarian.
Take, for instance, the issue of security. The test offers three choices: 1) The security of all takes precedence over the rights of an individual; state security forces must not have their function hindered because a potential criminal claims individual rights; 2) The laws and judicial system should determine in which cases preventive security measures can override certain individual rights, and in which cases they cannot; 3) The state must not violate any individual right in the name of security. The third is the liberal option, but it is clear that Milei’s government and his cadre of partisan journalists adhere to the first.
The same applies to La Libertad Avanza’s positions on other key topics in the test: Freedom of expression, Religion, Military service, Sex, Drugs, and Immigration.
If any doubt remains about the authoritarian-leaning conservatism of Mileism, one need only listen to its public discourse, that of its intellectual references, or the cartoonish speakers at the recent “Derecha Fest” held in the city of Córdoba—an event dominated by undemocratic language such as “war,” “battle,” and “combat.”
Take Rigoberto Hidalgo, for example. According to Hojas del Sur, one of the organizers of Derecha Fest, he is “a philosopher and renowned speaker from Costa Rica, recognized as an influential figure in defending the Christian faith and critical thinking. His career has focused on promoting rational dialogue about fundamental issues of existence and belief.”
During Derecha Fest, Hidalgo declared: “Progressivism is trash, and any model of thought that doesn’t adhere to family and life must be silenced.” What kind of political systems seek to silence dissenting voices? Since no participant in Derecha Fest rejected Hidalgo's statement, it must be considered that, instead of freedom, what is advancing in Argentina is authoritarianism.
In his own speech at Derecha Fest, Javier Milei attacked the idea of equal opportunity, as if all individuals started out from the same social conditions, and lashed out against the principle of state subsidiarity, which underpins the guarantee of economic, social, and cultural rights—rights that libertarianism denies.
What is striking is the support Milei enjoys from people who, until very recently, looked to European democracies as reference point, characterized by high levels of institutionality, government transparency, private economic initiative, and social inclusion. At Derecha Fest, centrists were accused of being enablers of Kirchnerism. But now the exact opposite can be argued: that centrist sectors are enabling authoritarianism.
There is little doubt that Javier Milei is a potential autocrat, especially considering how early he has announced his intentions to run for re-election, echoing Carlos Menem’s project of clinging to power to push forward economic reforms. If Milei succeeds in his political ambitions, and given that, with only a minority in Congress, he is already making deeply troubling statements such as saying journalists aren't hated enough and hurling insults at his critics, it would come as no surprise that, with a majority in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, he would go “all in” on his dream of authoritarian capitalism.
If there is one thing that extreme political views in Argentina, those of Trotskyism and “libertarianism,” agree on, it is that they are not applied in any country in the world. For this reason, Argentina must commit to human rights in their entirety and interdependence as a public policy agenda for democracy. Countries that do so, alongside maintaining fiscal responsibility as a state policy, provide the true model for Argentina’s development—not dogmatic experiments that erode democracy, whether they come from the left or the right. Countries that do so, together with fiscal responsibility as a state policy, are the mirror for the country's development, rather than attempting to experiment with dogmatic visions that erode democracy, whether they come from the left or the right.
