Milei looks like a one-trick pony (Opinion)
10-05-2025 07:45
Chainsaws are great but they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.
James Neilson
Former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald (1979-1986).
Milei clownface. | @KidNavajoArt
Chainsaws are great when it comes to chopping down trees and cutting through thick planks of wood, but as well as making an infernal racket which annoys people who happen to be living nearby, they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.
The same can be said about Mr Chainsaw himself. Javier Milei has achieved much since moving into the Pink House over a year ago. By hacking away at government departments that served no useful purpose, refusing to increase the money supply, squeezing expensive entitlements and taking measures to encourage investment in the natural resources Argentina has in abundance, he has slowed inflation and put the country on the threshold of what could turn out to be a prolonged economic boom.
While such results are undeniably good, Milei has also done much to make Argentine public life even more like a circus than it already was before he arrived. He seems unable to engage in reasonable arguments with those who criticise him, no matter how mildly. Instead, he covers them with crude insults that have pornographic connotations which tell us more about the kind of person he is than about the supposed shortcomings of those he berates. What is more, Milei’s favourite targets – and those of the digital warriors he has enrolled – are not political enemies who would dearly like to see his government break apart even if that meant many millions getting hurt by the falling debris, but journalists and economists who, on the whole, approve of his overall strategy, followed by members of the parties that provide his government with the parliamentary support it often needs.
In 2023, the electorate chose Milei over Sergio Massa and Patricia Bullrich because it had become horribly clear that, unless something really drastic was done double quick, Argentina would soon be devastated by a hyperinflationary tornado and could easily end up much like Venezuela, with at least 90 percent of the population that failed to emigrate reduced to living on scraps. Would democracy have survived the ensuing turmoil? Few would bet on it.
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/opinion-and-analysis/milei-looks-like-a-one-trick-pony.phtml
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