President Javier Milei delivered a speech to a group of schoolchildren in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, telling them that abortion should be criminalised and considered "aggravated murder" due to the "familial bond" between mother and foetus.
The remarks, delivered just two days before feminist activists will take to the streets to mark International Women's Day, were made by the president as he gave a speech at his old school marking the beginning of the educational year.
Moved to tears by his appearance at the Instituto Cardenal Copello in Buenos Aires, Milei recalled anecdotes from his school days and defended his "chainsaw and blender" economic plan.
In a long speech to students at the school in the Villa Devoto neighbourhood, President Milei detailed elements of his strict austerity plan, stating that every day he finds "a new job and we take it out.”
Implicitly criticising his predecessor in office, former president Alberto Fernández, the La Libertad Avanza leader slammed government spending and questioned the privileges of what he calls the "political caste."
When prompted by a student, Milei also addressed the fiscal deficit thus: "It's like your grandparents going out partying and passing the bill on to you. You'd be red-faced and angry.”
The 53-year-old economist, who was accompanied by his sister Karina, another former student, continued:“What politicians do is to go out partying, and they leave the bill to generations that were not even born.”
Heading off on a tangent, Milei then referred to the "murderers of the green scarves" – activists that use green handkerchiefs as a symbol of pro-abortion rights.
"And some who are also trying to kill them, who are the murderers of the green scarves."
"For me, abortion is an aggravated murder of the familial bond, and I can prove that from a mathematical, philosophical, liberal and biological perspective,” the president insisted.
Mixed reaction
Not all the students and staff were comfortable with Milei’s visit to the Instituto Cardenal Copello. One of the former president’s teachers at the school, a woman identified as “Miss Teresa,” told local TV crews that she hoped the government would not “squeeze” pensioners so much with austerity.
"I am retired and I am not very well off. I'm waiting for our pensions to improve and for him not to squeeze us so much with all the austerity," she said.
“When he was a boy he was already saying he was going to be President,” said the teacher, who taught Milei in fourth grade and said he was “an excellent student.”
The La Libertad Avanza leader also expressed his own dissatisfaction at a “lefty” teacher he once had, though he grew emotional as he remembered other past educators.
"There are many people who are socialists without knowing it,” grimmaced Milei, who admitted that he himself was inclined towards a "left-wing" view in his youth.
Milei told the students that he became interested in economics during the crisis of José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's plan in 1981, although he said that he "became passionate" about it during the hyperinflation of 1989.
In another part of his speech, the president teared up as he recalled his first class at the institution taught by “Brother José Luis,” whom he described as a Spanish teacher "very tall, very robust on the sides, and who came and taught in a cassock.”
“He left a mark on me for life,” said Milei as he welled up. “I can't help but be moved...".
Others also struggled to get through the speech: two schoolchildren fainted during it. They were later said to be fine.
Only fourth and fifth year students – aged between eight and ten years of age – at the institution attended the speech, according to reports. Other year groups were excused.
–TIMES/NA
Comments