Meet Javier Milei, the front-runner to be Argentina’s next president
The radical libertarian gives an interview to The Economist
Javier Milei arrives five minutes early to his interview with The Economist and cuts to the chase. “My goal is to get the country back on its feet,” he says, “so that within 35 to 45 years Argentina can once again be a world power.” Thus begins a discussion which lasts for three hours. Over black coffee with five spoonfuls of sugar, Mr Milei outlines his libertarian beliefs and explains how he would make Argentina, one of the world’s most economically vexed nations, “great again”.
When speaking about his political philosophy, Mr Milei has the air of an eccentric academic rather than an aspiring president. He becomes particularly animated as he explains how the 2008 financial crisis turned him from a “recalcitrant neoclassicist” into an “anarcho-capitalist”.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Argentina’s next president?”
From the September 9th 2023 edition
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