Argentina’s Money Machine and Fear Were All It Took to Stop Milei’s Surge
- Argentina’s Peronism defies odds in presidential election
- Economy Minister won first round vote despite 138% inflation
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Javier Milei truly believed he would celebrate turning 53 by winning Argentina’s presidency in the first round. The ballroom in a traditional yet démodé hotel in downtown Buenos Aires was thrumming to club beats and glowing in his signature campaign purple. Guests had been flown from around the world to toast the upset.
But instead the radical libertarian upstart was dealt a harsh political lesson: Peronism, the populist movement that was founded in the wake of WWII and captured the imagination of the downtrodden, has an enduring hold on Argentine society. Milei tried to take a wrecking ball to a system that proved, yet again, to be entrenched.