Argentina rocks out to singing President Javier Milei

Argentina’s President Javier Milei rocked out in front of thousands of fans during the launch of his latest economics book in Buenos Aires.

President Javier Milei belts out a tune at Luna Park, Buenos Aires. Picture: Getty Images

In a tie and leather jacket, Argentina’s President Javier Milei rocked out in front of thousands of fans during the launch of his latest economics book in Buenos Aires.

“I wanted to do this because I wanted to sing,” Mr Milei told spectators, before performing his own version of a local rock song at the Luna Park stadium.

Then, in another twist, he launched into a long lecture from his 13th book, Capitalism, Socialism and the Neoclassical Trap.

He returned to some of his favourite themes that he has brought up in international forums, such as slamming socialism and abortion, which he said was a “mechanism to massacre populations”.

The 53-year-old libertarian was a political outsider when he was elected last year on a wave of anti-government sentiment, vowing to halt Argentina’s decades of economic decline.

The concert saw the return of his rock-star persona, a remnant of his youth playing in a Rolling Stones cover band, which won voters over during his election campaign.

“I am here to support Javier in everything he does. I like his ideas, I like what he does, he is sincere, he is transparent, he says what he thinks,” said supermarket employee Santiago Roldan, 20.

Javier Milei is just getting started on stage at Luna Park in Buenos Aires. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Milei, an economist who became a popular television panellist before entering politics, gave a lesson in liberal economics stretching from ancient Egypt to the fall of the Berlin Wall. As the evening dragged on, many of the 10,000 supporters, left.

Mr Milei “remains a character who likes to put on a show”, political scientist Carlos Fara said.

The firebrand President has been in the international spotlight in recent days after he called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife “corrupt”, sparking a diplomatic spat.

The show came just hours after the release of statistics showing economic activity had slowed 8.4 per cent year-on-year in March, amid his government’s austerity drive. Mr Milei has slashed public spending, cut the cabinet in half, did away with tens of thousands of government jobs, suspended new public works contracts and ripped away fuel and transport subsidies.

He also devalued the peso by 50 per cent, and the measures have hit consumers hard. While inflation is slowing, prices are still up some 290 per cent from the previous year.

“Without a doubt, the path that the level of activity is following ­already speaks of a recession,” said Joel Lupieri, an economist at the consulting firm EPyCA.

The construction industry saw economic activity drop 29.9 per cent year-on-year after Mr Milei cancelled almost all public works.

“Today, national public works are almost 100 per cent stopped,” Gustavo Weiss, president of the Argentine Chamber of Construction, told Forbes magazine this month, adding that 100,000 jobs had been lost in the sector.

Mr Lupieri said that beyond the disappearance of government works, “the sustained increase in the price of materials also leads to a fall in private demand”. Manufacturing activity dropped 19.6 per cent, as aluminium and steel factories, carmakers and tire manufacturers laid off workers and cut production.

The only areas with an increase in activity were agriculture and livestock, which rose 14.1 per cent, and mining, up 5 per cent.

The overall slump in activity is on its fifth consecutive decline since November.

“It is unlikely that a rebound will be evident before the second half of the year,” Lupieri said.

The consulting firm Equilibria estimates a total 240,000 job losses in the first quarter of 2024.

The International Monetary Fund expects that Argentina’s economy to contract 2.8 per cent this year.

AFP