When your president doesn’t like having a government, that’s probably a problem.
That is the situation in Argentina, where the president identifies himself as an Anarcho-Capitalist, or more simply, an extreme libertarian who believes that the government shouldn’t have a central state, among other very controversial beliefs.
This president is one of the most outlandish presidents I’ve ever seen, not only for his sheer shock factor, but also for the monumental changes he intends to make. Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina on Dec. 10, and throughout the past month and a half, he’s attempted to make sweeping changes to the Argentine government. Changes such as the removal of half of the government’s 18 ministries, such as the Ministry of Education, (which he calls the “Ministry of Indoctrination”), the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity.
His shocking decisions didn’t stop there. Some of his campaign promises were that when he was elected, he would stop all government infrastructure projects, lower payments to the 23 provincial governments of Argentina, and lay off recently hired government employees. Milei is also very libertarian with his words, considering how many insults he levy’s towards seemingly random people.
One notable series of insults include him calling the Pope an imbecile, a “representation of the evil one on earth,” and a “SOB preaching communism.” Considering 92 percent of Argentina is Catholic, that’s probably not the best PR move on his part.
His wild political character extends beyond his official position. Believe it or not, he has a fictional character called “General Ancap”. To play this character, he puts on his black and gold costume and wields a chainsaw which represents his ideals to cut government influence. His girlfriend plays in these performances as his sidekick.
Milei’s relationship with his dogs just adds to the pile of bizarre things he believes. Milei considers his dogs his grandchildren, who are “the best strategists in the world.” In reality, his dogs are actually clones of his first dog, who died in 2017. These dogs are named after conservative American economists.
Now, returning back to his actual government policies, Milei wants to fully get rid of the national bank, which is wild, and then he wants to switch over Argentina’s currency from the Peso to the US dollar. Which, with the economy Argentina has, would probably devalue the American dollar. Might I add, he also believes people should be able to sell their organs.
Now, I know this is all quite shocking, but at the end of the day, a lot of these decisions have to go through either the Argentine parliament or courts, which will most likely strike them down. Especially because half the country is rioting over his decisions.
Now, in all seriousness, what did they expect from Milei when they literally nicknamed him “The Madman”?