Javier Milei

Submission 7,369

Part of a series on Argentina. [View Related Entries]

About

Javier Milei is a libertarian economist and candidate for the 2023 Argentine Presidential Election. The right-leaning politician had unexpected success in Argentina’s presidential primary in August 2023, which led to a series of memes and online discussions about Milei's statements on social media and his government agenda with some labeling him as "far-right." Milei was notably elected Argentina's President on November 19th, 2023.

History

Political Career

Since December 2021, Javier Milei has held the position of National Deputy (a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies) in Buenos Aires, representing the La Libertad Avanza party.^[1] Politically, Milei has been described by numerous media outlets as a far-right politician, ultraconservative and right-wing libertarian.^[2]

2023 Argentine Presidential Election

On August 13th, 2023, Milei won the primary presidential election in Argentina with 30 percent of the votes, surprising many and becoming the favorite candidate for the October 22nd election day. The Argentine has drawn criticism from many as he is an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, says his country's Central Bank should be abolished, thinks climate change is a lie, characterizes sex education as a ploy to destroy the family, believes the sale of human organs should be legal and wants to make it easier to own handguns.^[3]

On August 14th, the Channel Four Television Corporation uploaded a video on YouTube^[4] showing Milei's career and presidential candidacy. The video (shown below) garnered over 23,600 views and 220 likes in four days.

Election Results

On November 19th, 2023, Radical libertarian politician Javier Milei won^[9] the 2023 Argentine presidential election, with 55.8 percent of the vote, against 44.2 percent for opponent Sergio Massa. Milei spoke to the press after the victory, saying, "Today the reconstruction of Argentina begins." The full speech was uploaded on YouTube^[10] by the news channel @eltrece (shown below), which garnered over 251,000 views and 7,000 likes in a few hours.

Online Presence

Javier Milei's unexpected success in Argentina’s 2023 presidential primary was widely commented on the internet, resulting in many users highlighting some of his more controversial political views and government plans. For example, on August 10th, 2023, the candidate tweeted^[5] a video of former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, also a far-right politician, showing his support for the Argetine's candidacy. The video (shown below) amassed roughly 819,000 views and 27,400 likes in a week.

Muchas gracias Presidente @jairbolsonaro por su mensaje. Luchemos por una Latinoamérica libre.VIVA LA LIBERTAD CARAJO pic.twitter.com/d6dqnTJT8I

— Javier Milei (@JMilei) August 10, 2023

On August 14th, Redditor^[7] u/Brandelo_089 posted on the /r/PoliticalCompassMemes subreddit with an image featuring the Argentine politician aligned in the middle of a Political Compass chart. The post (shown below) received over 2,100 upvotes and 330 comments in four days.

The Argetine's name is also the subject of various memes for its similarity to American singer Miley Cyrus. For instance, on August 13th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @JoseePoy posted a video of the singer paired with the caption in Spanish saying "Miley Cyrus at home seeing her name trending because they do not spell Milei's name correctly." The post (shown below) garnered over 1 million views and 34,400 likes in five days.

Miley Cyrus en su casa viendo que es tendencia porq no escriben bien el nombre de Milei pic.twitter.com/72zN7fXnbK

— Josefrita (@JoseePoy) August 14, 2023

Lion Hugging Duck Tweet

On October 25th, 2023, the Argentine presidential candidate posted an image of a lion hugging a duck (shown below), which sparked a series of online discussions on X / Twitter over the following days. The image^[8] was posted after Argentine presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich, who was defeated in the first round of elections, shared her support to Milei, to which he responded with the image: "Lion" being his nickname and the "duck" being the nickname for Bullrich. The post amassed over 310,000 likes and 73,000 retweets in two days.