Argentine President Javier Milei Lays a Couple of Truth Bombs on Davos Audience

Argentina's radical libertarian President Javier Milei is back at Davos and, once again, is throwing truth bombs at the socialist, elitist leaders present.

Last year, he caused a lot of leftist heads in the audience to explode when he said, "The conclusion is obvious. Far from being the cause of our problems, free-business capitalism as an economic system is the only tool that we have to end hunger, poverty."

“Long live freedom, dammit,” and he left the stage. He should have dropped the mic but didn't.

This year, Milei is facing the Davos crowd after cutting inflation nearly in half. He said the "winds of change are blowing in the West" and called for a cure to "wokeness."

“The common denominator for the countries that are failing is the mental virus of woke ideology. It is the great pandemic of our time that needs to be cured. It is the cancer that must be cut out.” 

Milei told the audience that "we are an example of a new way of doing politics, which is about telling people the truth to their faces and trusting that they will understand."

But it was wokeism that Milei saw as the biggest problem and greatest threat to the West.

Today I've come here to tell you that our battle is not yet won. And although hope has been rekindled, it is our moral duty and our historical responsibility to dismantle the ideological edifice of sickly wokeism, until we have succeeded in rebuilding our historical cathedral, until we have ensured that the majority of Western countries once again embrace the ideas of liberty.

Until our ideas become the common currency in the halls of events such as this one, we can't let our guard down. Because I must say that forums like this one have been protagonists and promoters of the sinister agenda of wokeism that is doing so much damage to the Western world.

“It’s our moral duty and historical responsibility to dismantle the ideological building of the sick wokeism,” Milei said, accusing the World Economic Forum’s organizers of promoting these “wrong” ideas. “It’s the cancer we have to remove.”

Ending wokeness would be great. But the masses of Argentina's poor don't care about pronouns or DEI; they care about bread and security. They lack both, and Milei is well aware that his political future depends on feeding and empowering the poor. 

President Milei told Bloomberg's editor on the sidelines at Davos, “I have a job description which is: to lower inflation, to lower poverty, end insecurity, and make the economy grow.” 

Indeed, not long ago Milei conceded that he wouldn’t be president if it wasn’t for Argentina’s history of repeated economic failures. That’s why it was bizarre that in his half-an-hour “special address,” he made only a passing reference to the economic wins he has enjoyed in his first year in power (unlike his more extensive remarks on Bloomberg TV). Had he not been so focused on his social obsessions, he could have highlighted the impressive fiscal surplus posted by Argentina last year, the first one since 2009, after drastic budget cuts that paved the way to a historic slowdown in inflation. Or the faster than expected rebound in economic activity, with GDP seen growing at least 5.5% this year according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Or the huge expansion that the country’s hydrocarbon sector is posting.

International economists are predicting a good two years for Milei. However, as Bloomberg notes, "Argentina is always just one bad harvest away from disaster."

Milei can only hope for good weather.