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Argentina’s President Javier Milei speaks to lawmakers during the inaugural session of the Argentine Congress for the 2024 term on March 1, 2024 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tomas Cuesta | Getty Images News | fake images
A “global hegemony” of leftist politics and ideology is “beginning to crumble,” Argentina’s firebrand president Javier Milei said at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.
“What once seemed like a global hegemony of the ‘woke’ left in politics, educational institutions, the media, supranational organizations or even in forums like Davos, has begun to crumble,” said right-wing leader Milei , who takes office in 2023, told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
The divisive term “woke” generally refers to support for social justice issues and political activism.
The Argentine politician, who runs in a similar vein to US President Donald Trump, said he had been forming alliances with other like-minded figures and leaders.
“Throughout this year, I have found allies in this fight for the cause of freedom in every corner of the world, from the incredible (tech billionaire) Elon Musk to that fierce Italian lady (prime minister) Giorgia Meloni, of ( President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador to Viktor Orban in Hungary,” he said, also mentioning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump among his allies.
“Little by little, an international alliance has been formed between all those nations that want to be free and believe in the ideas of freedom,” he said.
Milei’s comments typify the deep divide between global leaders on the left and right of the political spectrum, with the two sides making little effort to overcome or understand each other’s ideological differences and positions in recent years.
After his inauguration on Monday, President Trump signed a series of executive orders that reverse policies instituted by his predecessor Joe Biden, such as commitments to fight climate change. Democrat Biden had done the same with Trumpian policies when he arrived at the White House in 2021, after the Republican’s first presidency.
Milei said he had come to Davos to warn that “the battle is not yet won.”
“Although hope has been revived, it is our duty and moral responsibility to dismantle the ideological edifice of sick awakening,” he said.
The Argentine president made a splash at the World Economic Forum last year when he called on world leaders to reject socialism and instead embrace “free enterprise capitalism” to end global poverty.
In his keynote speech last year, Milei warned that “the Western world is in danger” saying that “those who are supposed to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a worldview that leads inexorably to socialism and therefore poverty.”
Libertarian Milei is credited with renewing market confidence in Argentina’s downtrodden economy, implementing cuts to public sector spending and energy subsidies, among his policies. Inflation has also fallen from one of the world’s highest annual inflation rates of 289.4% in April to 117.8% in the year to December 2024. according to data from the country’s central bank.
Critics of Milei’s austerity program and its commitment to cutting public spending However, they say poverty has increased during his tenure..
