Javier Milei sees himself as nothing less than a world champion. The ultra-liberal president of Argentina claimed in an interview that he is “one of the two most important politicians” in the world, along with former US President Donald Trump, calling his political rivals “invisible rats”.
“It hurts them that today I am one of the two most important politicians on planet Earth. One is Trump, and the other is me,” Milei said in an interview with conservative channel LN+ on Sunday night.
A president in difficulty with his Parliament
“I am considered the greatest defender of the ideas of freedom in the world,” continued the head of state in office since December, referring to his meetings with “the greatest entrepreneurs in the world”, stars of Silicon Valley such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Milei, who is at odds with the Argentine parliament, where his libertarian party is in the minority and where he has suffered recent legislative setbacks, mocked in passing “the Lilliputian agenda of insignificant Argentine politicians, invisible rats, who will never be able to aspire to this.” “What vision can a rat have of a giant? Nothing,” he insisted.
A docu-series in his glory
At 53, this ultraliberal economist, libertarian and “anarcho-capitalist” according to his terms, has overturned Argentine politics since his emergence three years ago after having been for years a popular polemicist on TV talk shows. First a deputy in Buenos Aires, he managed, with a “clear out” narrative of an “anti-caste” outsider, to put an end to 20 years of Peronist (center-left) or classic right-wing governments. He willingly presents himself as one of the world’s paragons of liberalism.
Last week, he revealed the upcoming launch on YouTube of a docuseries in half a dozen episodes, each 30 minutes long, tracing his rise in politics, described in a trailer already available, as “a phenomenon that captivated the world”, “the most epic campaign in history”.