"Milei's chainsaw fits with the radicalization of the populist far right"

A screaming chainsaw held at arm's length in front of the crowd by a wild-haired candidate, belching out his signature slogan: "Long live freedom, damn it!" The victorious campaign of Javier Milei, elected President of the Argentine Republic in November 2023, didn't bother with long speeches. Even more masculinist than the axe, far more radical than the Kärcher, and barely more civilized than the flamethrower, the ultraliberal chainsaw brutally expresses the hatred that this trained economist, self-proclaimed "anarcho-capitalist," feels for the State.

The new president's carefully honed cutting chain promised to slash budget spending and terrify "the parasitic political caste." It has indeed cut to the quick. The "most significant austerity cure in history" launched by "the best government in the history of Argentina" has slashed public spending by nearly a third. More than 34,000 civil service jobs have been eliminated, and child welfare programs, pension indexation, and research budgets have been ripped to pieces.

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