Argentina president embraces rock star persona as economy crashes
Argentina’s "rock star president," Javier Milei, has been facing growing challenges as his pledge to usher the country into a new era of prosperity has struggled amidst economic turmoil, scandal, and rising public discontent, News.Az reports citing The Guardian.
But on Monday night the scruffy-haired South American populist – the former frontman in a Rolling Stones tribute band – took to the stage in Buenos Aires hoping to sing his way out of the funk.
“Olé, olé, olé, olé! Milei! Milei!” thousands of diehard supporters chanted as the 54-year-old libertarian kicked off a concert at the city’s Movistar Arena – a 15,000-seat venue which has previously hosted rockers including Liam Gallagher, Judas Priest and Megadeth.
Milei basked in the adulation, throwing his leather-clad arms into the air, and took a sip of water before proceeding with his nine-track set of mostly 1980s rock anthems. “I’m human,” he told the packed stadium. “It might not seem like it, but I am.”
Milei won power almost two years ago, vowing to save his country’s notoriously haywire economy by “exterminating” inflation and taking a metaphorical chainsaw to state spending. “Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of a tragic era for the world, these elections represent a tipping point in our history,” the Mick Jagger-impersonating crooner-turned-politician declared as he took office in December 2023.
For a while Milei’s ferocious austerity campaign appeared to be working – for some people at least – with the president’s success in taming triple-digit inflation drawing international plaudits.plaudit
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