Tesla billionaire Elon Musk happy: Argentina is on the right track with the election of Javier Miley. Andreas Scheider, leader of the SPO-EU delegation, sees it completely differently. He reacts with horror at the results of Argentina’s presidential election. He commented, “A catastrophic election result in Argentina.” “Miley will further divide the restive country, drive ordinary people into economic decline and poverty, and plunge the country further into chaos.”
The SPO politician noted Miley’s denial of climate change and the radical cuts in social spending that Argentina’s new head of state is planning. Argentina, warns Scheider, “is becoming a liberal experimental laboratory and the world is witnessing the consequences of a completely unrestricted neoliberal ideology.” Argentina’s upper class “have always had their sheep high and dry and have benefited from neoliberalism in this brutal pure culture.”
For this analysis, Scheider on Many Argentines see the upper class that Scheider is talking about as being primarily at home in the oppressive state power apparatus under which the entire country groans and groans. Miley has contested the elections as a counter-candidate to this political establishment. Many X users also remind the SPO politician of this.
Argentina could be looking at 100 years of economic decline. At the beginning of the 20th century, this country was as prosperous as Australia. By the early 1950s, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. Corrupt politicians from various parties and excessive bureaucracy caused permanent damage to the economy and prosperity, excessive monetary policy and resulted in record inflation at times. German columnist and author Rainer Zitelmann recently commented, “Argentinians have lost faith in the state.”
“Peronism”, a major political movement in the country named after former president Juan Peron, also played a major role in Argentina’s fall. Scheider tries to assign Javier Miley to this Argentinian Peronism. For MEPs, both Peronism and Miley are “neoliberal”, which is how he simplifies things. In general, there is right-wing and left-wing Peronism in Argentina. To this day, the Argentine trade union movement is dominated by Peronism. Miley’s defeated rival Sergio Massa is considered to be on the left spectrum.
The current president came to office with a counterprogram: bureaucratization, deregulation of the market, less state, more market economy. This meant he was also able to score points with many young voters. Countless Argentines suffered from state cronyism. But there is also a large section of the population that benefited from this system of power, which is why the outcome of the election was uncertain. To them, Miley’s plans threaten to reduce bureaucracy on a massive scale.
Peronism intervened again in the election campaign with all kinds of gifts. Suzanne Kass of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Buenos Aires commented to “Welt”, “The widespread appeal of giving cash gifts to voters since the primaries in August has been fruitful despite the corruption scandal in Buenos Aires province.” Ultimately, however, the Argentines decided to take a different path.
One thing is certain: Xavier Miley will now need a political partner on his side to successfully implement reforms.
