Milei “wants to shock people” explains Laura Ayerza de Castilho

Eleanor Sa-Carneiro

Javier Milei, the liberal economist that took Argentina by storm in the August primaries, garnering a massive following, particularly among the youth, came in second place in the first round of Argentina’s presidential elections of Sunday October 22 with some 30% of the votes. Milei is the candidate that Laura Ayerza de Castilho refers to as Buenos Aires very own Trump.

“He embraces the liberal ideas, which I think are great, we all agree. But then he called himself an anarcho-capitalist. So, I think he wants to shock people”, Laura explains, believing shocking people is how he won so many followers amid the youth.

Younger followers who have known little else besides Kirchnerism, related to Milei’s frustration and language explains Laura. The youth “were excited with this Mad Man with the “motto Sierra” (chainsaw) I think what they got excited with with his language, his swearing, his shouting”.

On his populist ideas such as suggesting to switch the currency from the peso to the dollar and be pegged to the dollar, Laura explains “Argentina hasn’t got the dollars to do the dollarization and he (Javier Milei) was expecting on having hyperinflation, the higher the dollar was in Argentina, the easier it was going to make the dollarization” suggesting that economists and analysts don’t believe it to be possible. Laura maintains that “the most sensible thing is to have bimonetarism, both currencies as we use now, dollar and pesos”.