Dressed in black leather and with images of bombings projected on stage behind him, President Javier Milei sang rock anthems and a Jewish folk song as he presented his new book on the country’s supposed “miracle” – while awaiting a potential financial rescue from the United States.
The 573-page volume, La construcción del milagro (‘The Construction of the Miracle’), compiles speeches and social media posts from the past year and arrives at what is widely considered the lowest point of his nearly two years in office.
Milei is facing a deepening political crisis following Sunday’s resignation of José Luis Espert, one of his top candidates in the October 26 midterm elections over alleged links to drug-trafficking.
Yet the President appeared eager to rekindle the atmosphere of his 2023 campaign, when he cultivated the image of an economist and rock star.
With a rasping, guttural roar, he opened the performance with ‘Panic Show’ by La Renga and ‘Demoliendo Hoteles’ by Charly García, before introducing his band.
After performing nearly a dozen songs, he condemned a recent anti-Semitic attack against a woman and her son in Buenos Aires.
“We will not allow this xenophobia that the left is trying to impose,” he declared, before launching into the folk song ‘Hava Nagila,’ which drew a lukewarm response from the crowd.
“Come on, this annoys the left!” he goaded.
He then urged the audience to chant “Cristina tobillera” – a mocking reference to the ankle monitor worn by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, his arch-rival, who has been serving house arrest since June following a corruption conviction.
The nearly 15,000 spectators packed into the venue erupted in cheers when images of US President Donald Trump and far-right activist Charlie Kirk – killed last month – were projected on the screen.
Earlier in the day, thousands of libertarian supporters gathered around the Movistar Arena in the capital’s Villa Crespo neighbourhood, many wearing the purple of Milei’s ruling party, La Libertad Avanza.
Members of Las Fuerzas del Cielo (“The Forces of Heaven”) – a youth group that supports the President on social media – dressed in dark red and carried Roman-style banners reading: “Heaven will crush them before us.”
“We have to decide whether to end 100 years of decline,” said Leonardo Saade, a 37-year-old tourism worker from Entre Ríos Province, who travelled with a group of fellow activists.
“The Argentine economic miracle is being studied in universities around the world,” he claimed.
As supporters filed in, a small group of neighbourhood assemblies protested outside with signs reading “Milei out,” leading to minor scuffles but no serious incidents.
“This man lives in another country; he has no idea of the hunger people are suffering,” said Liliana Castelnovo, a 73-year-old retiree and cancer patient, who said she can no longer afford her medication.
The warm embrace of libertarian crowds comes as Milei’s government faces mounting financial and political turbulence.
Congress last week overturned two presidential vetoes on funding bills for universities and the paediatric care sector, amid corruption accusations and after a significant provincial electoral defeat in early September.
That loss rattled markets and raised doubts about governability in the second half of Milei’s term, triggering a currency run last month that was only briefly contained by promises of US financial support.
One of Milei’s economist allies and bandmates, drummer Bertie Benegas Lynch, wrote in the book’s prologue that the President “has shown that only self-interest and individualism can make peace and prosperity flourish.”
Outside the stadium, a banner read: “Milei, the miracle is that anyone’s still buying.”
“I thought he knew something about economics, but he knows nothing,” said Rubén, a butcher working nearby who preferred not to give his surname. “Anyone can bring down inflation if no one’s buying anything.”.
Milei has slashed inflation and achieved a historic fiscal surplus, but at the cost of devaluing the peso, collapsing consumption, and cutting subsidies that have made housing, healthcare, and education increasingly unaffordable.
by Tomas Viola, AFP
