Thursday, March 28, 2024
Perfil

ARGENTINA | 14-01-2022 19:55

Milei raffles off monthly pay – and the cash is won by supporter of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

A 40-year-old from Buenos Aires City was the lucky winner of the raffle for Javier Milei’s first monthly paycheque this weeK – unfortunately for the libertarian deputy, he's a Kirchnerite.

A 40-year-old from Buenos Aires City was the lucky winner of the raffle for libertarian deputy Javier Milei’s first monthly paycheque this week and while the lawmaker was happy to follow through on his campaign promise, he probably isn’t as pleased with the result. 

The winner reportedly registered at the last minute on Tuesday night, competing with almost one million participants competing for the sum of 205,596 pesos (around US$1,000). 

"The winner is called Federico Hugo Nacarado, 40, who registered last night at 9.10pm," Milei confirmed on Wednesday. 

However, the ideology of porteño Nacarado is far removed from the liberal economist since he considers himself to be a fanatical Kirchnerite.

"I love Cristina [Fernández de Kirchner]," maintains Nacarado, who works in the construction sector. He said his  wife entered him into the raffle "because you have to if there is a contest going.”

Milei’s parliamentary salary will be raffled the same way every month, Libertad Avanza sources informed, open via https://mipalabra.javiermilei.com to all Argentine-born citizens aged over 18. 

“How are you doing, Javier? Thanks a lot, the money will come in handy,” Nacarado told the deputy in a brief dialogue maintained via Todo Noticias television news channel, telling him that much of it will go to pay off bank overdrafts.

"At least he made a good start because he kept a promise,” he commented on Milei and his recent incursion into politics.

"At home we are super K,” the winner later told La Nación, naming his three favourite Argentine politicians as “first, Cristina Kirchner, then (Buenos Aires Province Governor) Axel Kicillof and third, Máximo Kirchner."

As for the ultra-liberal and anti-system economist Milei, 51, his comment was: "That money is mine, I can spend it like any other deputy or burn it in public or seek a form whereby that money stolen from the people returns to the people."

Just 25 years after swearing in on December 10, the deputy raffled his December salary of 200,000 pesos in a street overlooking a Mar del Plata beach at the height of the holiday season, transmitted directly by television news channels. The name of the winner emerged ahead of the presence of Milei himself.

The libertarian sprang from the academic world and political consultancy when he created his La Libertad Avanza party in 2020 which rubbishes what he calls the "political caste" and considers the state "the enemy, a violent oppressor who robs us of the fruit of our labours," in his words.

In the November 14 midterms, Milei’s party finished third in the City of Buenos Aires with 17.3 percent of the vote, winning two seats in the Chamber of Deputies although not represented in the rest of the country.

The initiative was criticised by many of his fellow-deputies while the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Pública, an autonomous government entity, began an investigation to corroborate that it complies with personal data protection legislation, given the possibility that the real aim of the raffle was to assemble a data base of possible voters.

"What does Milei live from, how does he pay his bills?" asked deputy Sabrina Ajmechet, of the centre-right opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition, warning that if legislators do not collect their salaries, "only the wealthy could enter politics."

"I pick up money for my work, as outlined by Article 74 of the Constitution," said his ally José Luis Espert, another ultra-liberal economist, differentiating himself from Milei, who argued that he renounced his earnings from private activity before swearing in as a deputy on December 10 and that he will live in future from economics lectures.

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL

Comments

More in (in spanish)