Argentina, many similarities between Milei and Menem | EUROtoday

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A fleeting assembly and a cordial greeting, aside from a denied interview. “You Europeans cannot understand Peronism.” Carlos Menem stated goodbye to me like this, with few phrases and a sly smile. The 12 months was 1998. The Argentine President accepted my request for an interview, endorsed and recorded by all of the intermediate officers of the Casa Rosada; however then, on the final second, an unexpected circumstance pressured him to cancel ‘the 20-minute espresso’ granted by his Press Office. The grand outdated man, political genius and champion of Creole liveliness, postponed the appointment for just a few weeks. The telluric actions inside his social gathering and the nation’s imminent monetary instability instructed he postpone the assembly sine die.

The new president Javier Milei has a unique look from Menem, sideburns apart. However, there are similarities between the 2, particularly if we take a look at Argentinomics, the financial program. Menem’s ‘First World’ Plan and Milei’s Chainsaw Plan. The latter detests Peronists, however an unmissable essay by Eduardo Abrevaya ‘A Thousand and One Peronist Nights’ reminds us that ‘in Argentina even the anti-Peronists are Peronists’. Menem, obsessed by worldwide scores, blinded by an extreme ambition, his personal and unjustified for his nation, has led Argentina to the abyss. Milei, who has solely been in workplace for just a few weeks, wields the large chainsaw, a symbolic counterpart to a coverage that can lower healthcare, colleges, salaries, and ministries. The screeching of the chainsaw, accompanied by the screams of the president, who just a few days in the past, boarding an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight, greeted the opposite passengers with the same old: “Long live freedom, damn it.”

The assonances. Menem was elected with an out-of-control value rise, hyper-inflation at 4900%, an exhausted voters, an financial disaster attributable to the low costs of agricultural uncooked supplies. Of which Argentina is a good producer. The Turk, that is the nickname of Menem, son of Syrian immigrants, was the architect of a terrific deregulation. Milei gained the elections in a macroeconomic framework with a number of similarities: inflation of 140%, poverty fee above 40% and a political financial incapable of giving stability to the peso, the Argentine forex. The payments offered through the electoral marketing campaign relaunched dollarization, even offering for the abolition of the nationwide forex, the peso. Difficult to use, however introduced. His decree is the start of a brand new deregulation. Menem (1930-2021) ruled for ten years, from 1989 to 1999, with the unacceptable audacity of somebody who is aware of how you can transfer within the stomach of the Argentine White Whale, Peronism. Always altering. From the acute left, flanking the Monteneros, to the acute proper, near the generals of the dictatorship (1976-1982) and in these fifty shades of grey that permit us to navigate in all the time murky waters. Menem managed to go away El Titanic, shortly earlier than of the catastrophe, however not escape the political pillory of those that led a rustic to default in 2001.

He, in tandem with the Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo. Street clashes, 39 deaths and an unprecedented recession. Just earlier than Christmas, Milei offered a maxi decree. The key factors are the next: repeal of the legislation that prevented the privatization of state corporations and their transformation into public restricted corporations; repeal of commercial and industrial promotion legal guidelines; deregulation of the skies and privatization of the nationwide airline Aerolíneas Argentinas; deregulation of satellite tv for pc Internet companies to permit the entry of operators corresponding to Starlink… In quick, the start of a brand new season of financial and industrial coverage of a completely liberalist nature. A ultimate analogy. Milei renounced Argentina’s entry into the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and relaunched the connection with the United States, though stricken by an limitless tug-of-war with the International Monetary Fund. Menem appreciated to repeat that between the United States and Argentina there are shut and indissoluble relations, “carnal relations.” He hasn’t introduced her any luck.
Roberto Da Rin, Italian journalist, is the International Editor of Il Sole 24 Ore and related to EditoRed. This article was initially revealed in Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy, with whose authorization we reproduce. Read right here the unique textual content in Italianin Italian.