He’s known as “the madman”, his hairdresser likens him to Wolverine, while the man himself prefers the term “anarcho-capitalist”. But this week Javier Milei has a new title: president of Argentina.
By now the world should not be surprised by a far-right TV personality with attention-grabbing hair winning at the polls, but Milei’s meteoric rise up the ranks of Argentinian politics still shocked observers. On the election trail, he promised to close the central bank, dollarise the economy and insulted Argentina’s biggest trading partners, China and Brazil. But what will he do now that he has power?
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, has been in Buenos Aires for Milei’s inaugaration. He tells Nosheen Iqbal how he has spoken to everyone from former ministers to astrologers to try to understand Milei’s appeal and speculates how Argentina will fare under the former Rolling Stones tribute band member. He explains the toll sky-high inflation is taking on the people of Argentina – and why voters would rather risk everything on Milei than prop up the status quo.
Photograph: Emiliano Lasalvia/AFP/Getty Images
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