Milei and the far right in Argentina. Between opportunism and innovation

GABRIEL VOMMARO

Santiago de Chile

Workshop; WORKSHOP ON THE FAR-RIGHT IN LATIN AMERICA; 2023

PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE CHILE, INSTITUTO DE CIENCIA POLITICA

I develop two arguments. First, that the growth of Milei's public centrality is supported by an opportunistic strategy of conservative influencer based on trial and error in his public discourse. Second, that Milei manages to associate a libertarian discourse against the State - not very popular in Argentina according to most opinion polls- with his criticism of the political elites.2 The anticasta discourse, as well as his positions in favor of the iron fist and against the State, placed Milei as a spokesman for the discontent of a part of the voters towards the two coalitions that ruled Argentina in the last two decades: the center-left Peronist coalition, led by Kirchnerism, and the center-right coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), led by PRO. This discontent grew with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with the restrictions that the government placed on the movement of people and economic activity, and with the prolongation of an economic crisis that began in 2018, during the government of Mauricio Macri, and prolonged to the present (Oliveros & Vommaro, 2022).