“Without a doubt, we are partying tonight,” the president-elect of Argentina, Javier Milei, promised his supporters after winning the nation’s presidency on Sunday night – sending thousands to flood the streets of Buenos Aires chanting “Freedom!” and waving Gadsden flags.
Milei, who for most of his career has been an economic analyst and television commentator, ran his campaign for the presidency as an anarcho-capitalist and self-proclaimed libertarian, railing against triple-digit inflation and decades of socialist rule in his country.
Los festejos en las inmediaciones del búnker de La Libertad Avanza tras conocerse los resultados: Javier Milei será el próximo presidente de la Argentina #Balotaje2023 https://t.co/vJ2zlvLXA0 pic.twitter.com/AXoi1UPHs5
— infobae (@infobae) November 20, 2023
#ARGENTINA23RTVE | La euforia estalla en las calles de Buenos Aires, cerca del hotel 'Libertad', el búnker donde está Javier Milei y todo su equipo de campaña.
— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) November 20, 2023
🎙️ Informa Sagrario García-Mascaraque (@sagrariog_m)
#Canal24Horas
📺 https://t.co/rscwNdtsL3 pic.twitter.com/bwUXVqCpf9
His political party, Liberty Advances, first appeared on election ballots in 2021 and triggered the first loss of control of Congress for the Peronist socialists since 1983. Milei, a lawmaker following the 2021 election, shocked political observers by topping the August 2023 open primary; in Argentina, all prospective presidential candidates must obtain at least 1.5 percent support in a single primary election.
Milei lost the initial round of presidential voting in October to socialist current Economics Minister Sergio Massa but obtained enough of the vote to secure a place in Sunday’s runoff. He won decisively, obtaining about 55 percent of the vote to Massa’s 44 percent. Most polls prior to the election indicated the race would be close, though they showed Milei with a slight lead within the margins of error.
“Today ends the idea that the state is loot to be divided among politicians and their friends. Today ends that vision that the victimizers are the victims and the victims the victimizers,” Milei declared in his victory speech. “Today, we retake the path that made this country great, today we again embrace the ideas of liberty.”
The atmosphere in the heart of Buenos Aires was a festive one, attracting thousands of people, including many young Argentines, waving their nation’s flags and the insignia of the Liberty Advances Party, a yellow and black flag featuring a lion.
Crowds sung anti-politician campaign songs and repeatedly chanted Milei’s campaign slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo!” (roughly, “Long live freedom, damn it!”). Couples embraced in celebration.
Many supporters also wore the jerseys of the Argentine national soccer team, the current holders of the FIFA World Cup championship.
Some supporters adopted the American Gadsden flag, emblazoned with a snake and the slogan “Don’t tread on me,” as a symbol of limited government and classical liberalism. Omnipresent at the rally were plush lions and supporters dressed as lions, the symbol of the Liberty Advances party. Milei adopted the lion as a mascot following a promise not to “shepherd lambs, but to awaken lions.”
Also heavily present in Buenos Aires was the Venezuelan flag. Argentina has taken in over 174,000 Venezuelan refugees, who have fled the economic collapse and political destruction of their country under socialism. Venezuelans joined Argentines in the heart of the capital in appreciation and celebration of the end of another socialist government in their adopted country. Some Venezuelans held up signs reading “We come from the future,” suggesting that the election of another socialist government in Argentina could result in the same dictatorship and collapse that Venezuela has experienced for 20 years.
“We are full of hope with the very big promise that Argentina has finally awakened and with all the hope possible that next year, Venezuela will be taking the same steps that Argentina is taking today,” René Ayala Bueno, a Venezuelan refugee, told Argentina’s Clarín newspaper from the celebrations on Sunday.
