Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei claimed in an interview to be “one of the two most important politicians” to the world, with former US President Donald Trump, in passing, calling his political rivals «lilliputiens» and of “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 evening.
“I am considered the greatest defender of the ideas of freedom in the world”the head of state continued since December, referring to his meetings with “the world’s greatest entrepreneurs”, Silicon Valley stars 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.
Milei, 53, ultra-liberal economist, libertarian and “anarcho-capitalist” in his words, has turned Argentine politics upside down since emerging three years ago after years of being a popular polemicist on TV talk shows. First a deputy in Buenos Aires, he has managed, with a narrative “clear out” d’outsider «anti-caste»to end 20 years of Peronist (centre-left) or classic right-wing governments. He readily presents himself as one of the world’s paragons of liberalism. Last week, he revealed the upcoming launch on YouTube of a docu-series in half a dozen episodes, each 30 minutes long, tracing his rise in politics, described, in a trailer already available, as “phenomenon that captivated the world”and of “The most epic campaign in history”.
