In Argentina, Javier Milei attacks the symbols of Peronism

LETTER FROM BUENOS AIRES

The presidential decree was issued on Javier Milei’s first anniversary in power, December 10, 2024. It prohibits “the exhibition, installation or dissemination of images, symbols, works or any other personal references which can be interpreted as partisan political propaganda or a cult of personality in public establishments or worksites, offices, monuments (…) belonging to the national state ». The text also provides that no public establishment can bear the name of a political figure less than ten years after his death.

You have to read between the lines to understand the scope of the decree: these are the political representations of Peronism – a movement bearing the name of its founder, Juan Domingo Peron, president between 1946 and 1955, then from 1973 to 1974, encompassing from the left to ‘in the center – which are targeted. For the ultraliberal president, it is about making a clean sweep of the past to build the “New Argentina”as he named it on Tuesday December 10 during the speech marking his first year in power, while delivering the “cultural battle”against progressive ideas and the political movements embodying them.

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