“The exercise and scale of personal power are heavily conditioned by the circumstances of the takeover of power and the earliest phase of its consolidation.” In Personality and Power (Penguin, 2022), the English historian Ian Kershaw discusses how the initial conditions of power ascension can potentiate or mitigate a leader’s inherent personality traits. A preceding tragedy creates an opening for significant individual influence in decision-making, sometimes leading to catastrophic consequences – Kershaw’s primary area of study, of course, has been the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Javier Milei’s road to power was marked by an enduring economic crisis and a widespread public conviction that the political establishment had failed them. Argentina has been stagnant for over a decade and in economic freefall since 2018, when the economic reform programme of then-president Mauricio Macri crashed into the wall of over-indebtedness and he rushed to the International Monetary Fund for help. Macri doubled inflation during his term and his successor, Alberto Fernández, quadrupled it.
The developing scandal surrounding the alleged domestic violence by Fernández against his ex-partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez, seems to confirm Milei’s campaign truism that the country’s politicians were not only inept but also morally bankrupt. The main success of Milei’s winning campaign for the Casa Rosada was his ability to position himself as the representative of an angry society, a victim of abuse by “the caste.” The Fernández administration’s reputation had months-long Covid-19 lockdown leaked online. The abuse allegations represent an entirely new level of political degradation.
With Fernández now turned into the perfect villain, everyone claims to have been his victim. This list includes his former vice-president, Cristina Fernández Kirchner, who rushed her followers to disseminate the narrative that she had also been “a gender/political victim” of the ex-president, who supposedly betrayed her trust. An unbiased perspective might have suggested the opposite during Fernández’s time in office, as Fernández de Kirchner’s followers, placed in key areas of the administration, would block or openly boycott the administration’s agenda. Enough with the offences Fernández did commit to also burden him with the ones he didn’t.
Milei’s approval ratings largely rely on the discrediting of the opposition, symbolised by Fernández and Fernández de Kirchner’s dysfunctional Frente de Todos coalition. The current head of state still maintains around 50 percent public support, despite a slight decline due to the economic recession. His success largely depends on reducing inflation, which was the Achilles’ heel of his two predecessors. This week, he narrowly achieved the lowest monthly inflation figure of his Presidency to date: four percent in July.
The Fernández-Yáñez scandal fuels Milei’s narrative that the “caste” was hypocritical about certain politically correct ideas and policies. At the top of this list is the women’s rights agenda. Notably, one of Milei’s first decisions as head of state was to close the Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, which Fernández had created. But it also encompasses economic policy: previous governments were printing money to provide handouts, but the money would later become worthless due to inflation; utility rates were cheap thanks to subsidies, which would also fuel inflation and reduce people’s buying power. And so the list goes on.
Candour is Milei’s main political asset, even if at times it borders on verbal violence and a touch of madness. His rants on social media have become the norm, as have his attacks on economists who criticise his economic programme. This week, curiously in the middle of the national shock over the Fernández domestic violence case, Milei allowed himself to be captured on camera kissing the veteran showbiz personality Amalia ‘Yuyito’ González, who confirmed on TV that she is the President’s new girlfriend. To emphasise the contrast between a former president accused of beating a woman and the current president entering a new phase of love, González said their relationship was “healthy, pure, nice, and naïve.” This is Milei’s second romantic affair in a year — both women have similar showbiz profiles, both are tall, voluptuous and (fake) blonde. The scriptwriters of Milei’s Presidency run the risk of stretching the limits of credibility.
The President is entering a new stage of his Presidency, likely to last for at least another year and a half until after the 2025 midterm elections, when his role as the champion of the public’s victim mentality shifts to that of the perpetrator of whatever good or bad may come. To follow Kershaw’s argument, the conditions that brought him to power, combined with his man-on-a-mission personality, give him plenty of room to manoeuvre. But more and more, Milei stands alone in the country’s political ring — his rise or fall entirely attributable to his own virtues and faults.
Comments