What sort of libertarian is Javier Milei? A "sex and drugs" libertarian? Alas, no. He's a "sell organs and children" libertarian. And he and his 1970s anime hair shall govern Argentina after winning, handily, its presidential election.
His rival Sergio Massa conceded the run-off vote on Sunday evening in a brief speech even before official results were announced. "Milei is the president elected for the next 4 years," said Massa, adding that he had already called Milei to congratulate him. Provisional results so far show Milei with over 55% of votes (13,781,154) with more than 94% of votes counted, according to data from the country's National Electoral Chamber, which has not yet declared an official winner.
Milei, a social conservative with ties to the American right, opposes abortion rights and has called climate change a "lie of socialism." He has promised to slash government spending by closing Argentina's ministries of culture, education, and diversity, and by eliminating public subsidies.
Many will be headed to Wikipedia. Here's the best bit:
Milei is the owner of five English Mastiffs, with the progenitor being Conan, who died in 2017 after suffering from spinal cancer. He considers Conan his son and has named four of Conan's six clones, including one named after the original and another named Angelito, Milton (in honor of Milton Friedman), Murray (in honor of Murray Rothbard), Robert, and Lucas (both named after Robert Lucas). …
Milei stated that he communicates with the dogs through a mystic. For example, he commented that the new Conan provides ideas on general strategy, Robert is the one who makes him "see the future and learn from mistakes", Milton is in charge of political analysis, and Murray of the economy. When asked about this by El País journalist Martín Sivak and Nicolás Lucca of Radio Rivadavia, Milei did not deny it, and said: "What I do with my spiritual life and in my house is my business. If Conan advises me on politics, it means that he is the best consultant of humanity."
Milei said he had dialogues with the likes of Rothbard and Ayn Rand. In 2015, he cited Conan as a source of inspiration for his writing. About Conan's death in 2017, Milei said that Conan had not really died (he described it as "his physical disappearance" and continued to refer to Conan in the present tense) but had gone to sit next to God to protect him, and that it was thanks to this that he had begun to have talks with God himself. According to González, Milei wrote to a friend in a chat: "I saw the resurrection of Christ three times, but I can't talk about it. They would say I'm crazy." According to various sources consulted by La Nación, Milei maintains that he and Conan have a mission that was assigned to them by God and has a mystical story with Conan. He said that he met Conan, who was a lion, as a gladiator in the Roman Colosseum about 2,000 years earlier.
