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After Forty Years of Democracy, Argentina Faces a Defining Presidential Runoff

By Graciela Mochkofsky

Argentina is just a day away from a Presidential runoff election that may bring to power the most bizarre candidate whom the nation has produced since democracy was restored there, exactly forty years ago. Javier Milei came in second in the first round of voting, on October 22nd, but several polls place him as the favorite for Sunday. Even if he doesn’t win, his political rise is a troubling comment on the state of the country, bringing it into the front ranks of the battle between democracy and autocracy that is currently sweeping much of the world.

Milei is a fifty-three-year-old economist who was practically unknown to the Argentinean public before 2015, when his appearance as a panelist on a popular late-night TV show immediately doubled its ratings and he became a regular guest. A self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist and libertarian, he called for shrinking the government, eliminating or cutting many taxes, and shuttering the Central Bank. On the show, he was often irate, berating his fellow-panelists and cursing. In the years since, Milei has disparaged women’s rights (“I will not apologize for having a penis,” he said, and promised to shutter the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity) at the time of Ni Una Menos (Not One Less), the most powerful feminist movement in the country’s history, and has supported a total ban on abortion after it finally became legal, in 2021. He has also been a climate-change denier during a catastrophic drought in an agricultural economy; a sympathizer of the military dictatorship in the country of Nunca Más, the slogan that represents the commitment to never again return to an authoritarian regime; and a detractor of the first, and very popular, Argentinean Pope , in a majority-Catholic country. Wearing his hair styled like Wolverine’s , he looked and sounded unlike anyone Argentines had seen on TV. He provided a good spectacle.

Milei grew up in Buenos Aires during the last military dictatorship, and was thirteen when the country returned to democratic rule, in 1983. Six years later, when that first democratic government came to an end in the midst of epic hyperinflation, he quit pursuing a career as a professional soccer goalie to study economics. He earned two master’s degrees and worked as an independent consultant and as a chief economist at the company that administers thirty-seven of the country’s airports. He has also taught at private universities, and authored several books on economics. A few op-eds in national publications, which served as a platform for his ideas, led to his TV career.

Since he joined the Presidential race, his personal life has become the object of some fascination. Milei has publicly said that he had a very difficult relationship with his parents, whom he has called “progenitors” and from whom has been estranged. The only family member he is close to is his younger sister Karina. She is his campaign manager, and he has said that she will be his First Lady if he becomes President.

Then there are Milei’s dogs. He had an English mastiff, named Conan (for the barbarian), whom he called his “true and greatest love.” He was devastated when Conan died, in 2017—he recently told an interviewer that his dog and his sister were the only ones “who in all the most horrible events of my life did not betray me”—but he had previously sent a sample of the dog’s tissue to a dog-cloning company. He paid fifty thousand dollars, and, in 2018, he received not one but five cloned puppies. According to the podcast “Sin Control: El Universo de Javier Milei” (“Out of Control: Javier Milei’s Universe”), produced by the Spanish newspaper El País and the digital magazine Anfibia , in Buenos Aires, Milei remodelled his apartment so that the puppies could have room to play. But they grew to weigh two hundred pounds each, and they fought. One day, the dogs attacked him, and he ended up with stitches and his arm in a cast.

But the most confounding aspect of Milei’s story is how he went from playing a clownish character on TV to becoming a successful politician—or how he’s had a political career at all. After decrying politicians as “criminals” and “thieves” (and much worse) for years, Milei announced in 2021 that he was running for a seat in the lower house of Congress, and launching a far-right coalition called La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances). Though most Argentines still didn’t take him seriously, he captured the imagination of enough (mostly) young male voters to gain seventeen per cent of the vote in the city of Buenos Aires and won the seat.

This year, he entered the Presidential race, running against the two parties that have dominated the country’s political scene for the past twenty years, led by two former Presidents, neither of whom is running this time: the current Vice-President Cristina Kirchner’s center-left Peronist movement, the Unión por la Patria (Union for the Homeland), which was previously known as Frente de Todos (Everyone’s Front), and the former President Mauricio Macri’s center-right Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change). Milei’s symbol is a diesel-fume-spewing chainsaw, which he threatens to take to everything he says is the problem with the country: whatever remains of a welfare state, including subsidies and state-funded jobs, women’s rights, the entire “political caste” as he calls the existing political system.

Only the national collective rage against the political establishment, the overwhelming weariness owing to the country’s apparently unsolvable economic problems, can explain Milei’s popularity. Argentina is currently led by President Alberto Fernández, who chose not to run again, and Kirchner, whose party has been in power for sixteen of the past twenty years, and is undergoing one of the worst economic crises in its four decades of democracy. The first was the hyperinflation of 1989, which led to the privatization of state-owned companies and a convertibility program, which pegged the peso to the dollar (Milei now supports total dollarization, eliminating the peso completely); the second was the foreign-debt default of 2001, which led to the devaluation of the peso, the end of a fixed exchange rate, and mass street protests against the political establishment embodied in the motto “Que Se Vayan Todos” (Out with Them All). Today, the crisis involves, again, a soaring inflation rate (more than a hundred and forty per cent this year), a brutal forty per cent of people living below the poverty line, a plummeting peso, a four-year drought that has cost the country an estimated twenty billion dollars so far, and a forty-four-billion-dollar debt with the International Monetary Fund. Milei’s remaining opponent, who led the first round of votes with thirty-seven per cent, to Milei’s thirty per cent, is Sergio Massa—the Minister of Economy.

There was some alarm when, a few days after the first round of voting, Milei seemed to suffer what looked like a breakdown on live national TV. His face contorted, his speech was erratic, and he complained about hearing voices in the quiet studio. He appeared in the final televised Presidential debate, last Sunday night, but he again came across as a thoroughly unserious person. Pressed by Massa about his proposal to end commercial relationships with two of Argentina’s largest trade partners, China and Brazil—because, as he had told Tucker Carlson , who interviewed him last month in Buenos Aires on his worldwide support tour of far-right politicians, they have “communist” leaders—Milei argued that trade among countries takes place between private companies and does not require government intervention. He seemed perplexed when Massa told him that, in fact, bilateral trade is regulated by nations.

Rafael Bielsa, a former Minister of External Relations who was the president of the airport company where Milei was an economic adviser, said that Milei often proposed “ideas that were ridiculous, possibly tragic if carried forward.” The owner of the company, Eduardo Eurnekian, one of Argentina’s wealthiest men, supported Milei while he worked at the company and endorsed his Presidential candidacy as a pro-business alternative to the government, but has also warned about the risk of Milei becoming a dictator if he wins.

Last week, more than a hundred leading economists from around the world warned in an open letter that Milei’s proposal for “a major reduction in government spending would increase already high levels of poverty and inequality, and could result in significantly increased social tensions and conflict” and that “Milei’s dollarization and fiscal austerity proposals overlook the complexities of modern economies, ignore lessons from historical crises, and open the door for accentuating already severe inequalities.” In another open letter, more than a thousand Argentinean women called on citizens to vote against Milei as a democratic duty.

Uncertainty is the norm. Different polls predict narrow leads by either candidate, despite the significant percentage of people, according to polls, who say that they will vote for neither Massa nor Milei, and of those who are still undecided (about five per cent). In Argentina, voting is mandatory for citizens over eighteen, and, though people can choose to cast a blank vote, in a runoff, blank votes are not calculated into the final tally. The candidate who finished third in the first round, Patricia Bullrich, and her party’s leader, former President Macri, are supporting Milei. But others, including another member of Macri’s party, the former mayor of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who ran in the primaries and lost to Bullrich and broke with Macri after he endorsed Milei, have pronounced themselves neutral but said that electing Milei would cross “a line.” Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard and the co-author of the book “ How Democracies Die ,” made the same point when he said, last week, that the greatest achievement of Argentinean democracy “has been the forging of a broad societal consensus against military intervention and in defense of human rights. I worry that that great achievement is now being threatened. For the first time in decades, we are seeing the emergence of politicians who don’t share the consensus around Nunca Más.” Are Argentineans so weary that they are willing to risk their hard-earned democracy? We’ll find out on Sunday. ♦

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By Joshua Yaffa

By John Cassidy

By Sam Knight

By Adam Gopnik

Eduardo Eurnekian

Argentina | CEO | Corporación América Airports

Eduardo Eurnekian has been CEO and founder of Corporación América since 1998. The conglomerate’s main operation, Corporación América Airports, is managed by his nephew, Martín Eurnekian, and has more than 50 airports in 7 countries. The holding company also owns units that operate in the oil and gas sector. Weeks ago, the holding confirmed an investment of US$110 million in green hydrogen in Spain, in a bet of the company towards renewable energies.

Chairman, Corporación América International

First Vice-President, Argentine Chamber of Commerce; Chairman, Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Member-elect, Executive Board, ICC. Recipient, awards and honours, incl.: Businessman of the Year, Argentina (1995); Leonardo Award, Italy (1999); Man of the Year, Armenian General Benevolent Union (2010); Knight of Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia (2011); Business for Peace Award, Oslo Business for Peace Foundation (2012); Businessman of the Year, Latin Chambers of Commerce and Industry (2012); Businessman of the Year - Services Category, Argentina (2012), Argentine Businessmen Association; Certificate of Appreciation, UNDP, for role as Advocate for sustainable development (2012).

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MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 25th 2024 - 17:12 UTC

Eurnekian's home and business offices raided by the Argentine federal police

Argentine federal police raided this week three addresses belonging to businessman Eduardo Eurnekian as part of an ongoing major investigation into public works contracts awards in exchange for money contributions.

The raids were carried out on orders of Judge Claudio Bonadío and included the home, in the posh district of San Isidro, of Eurnekian, the richest member of the Armenian community in Argentina, the offices of his Corporation America and those of Aeropuertos 2000, which has the concession of all major airports in Argentina, Carrasco in Uruguay, and a couple in Italy.

In the three addresses members of the police and judiciary were looking for information possibly related to the notebooks of a former driver of Roberto Baratta, one of ex president Cristina Fernandez ministers, who routinely registered time and places his boss ordered him to visit as part of the daily collection of illicit funds.

Eurnekian has always been in good relations with the ruling administrations in Argentina, and his name/and/or address allegedly cropped up on several occasions in the notebooks, during the governments of both Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernandez.

Last August, the nephew of Eurnekian, Hugo Eurnekian who is head of the energy projects of Corporacion America confessed to have given funds for an election campaign to Baratta, the trusted officer of ex minister Julio de Vido, the right hand man of the Kirchners since they started their political career in Santa Cruz province.

“Hugo Eurnekian voluntarily presented himself to the court of Judge Claudio Bonadío to clarify his situation given that his home address appeared in the driver's 'notebooks'”, the Corporacion America announced at the time in a public release.

The name of Eduardo Eurnekian has been added to the list of the cream of the cream of leading Argentine businessmen involved in public works contracts investigation, among which is Pablo Rocca, CEO of Argentine multinational Techint, probably the strongest Argentine-Italian group in the country.

Eurnekian is also the benefactor of the Argentine military memorial at Darwin in the Falklands. He recently travelled to the Islands with a delegation of top Argentine industry and farming leaders to thank local authorities for their commitment to the humanitarian project of identifying the remains of Argentine combatants in unnamed graves. Eurnekian also funded the trip last March of some 200 relatives of the now dozens of graves which have a full name at the Argentine military cemetery.

Top Comments

ALL Eduardo Eurnekian & his nephew Hugo have to do is to grease a few palms.

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Milei’s Former Billionaire Boss Praises His Argentina Contender

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(Bloomberg) -- Eduardo Eurnekian, an Argentine billionaire and former boss of presidential frontrunner Javier Milei , praised contender Patricia Bullrich while stopping short of offering his explicit backing ahead of the country’s general election in October.

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In a surprise move given his close relationship to Milei, the airport mogul raised a toast to Bullrich at a luncheon gathering of over 200 business leaders at the Sheraton hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, saying her efforts in the presidential campaign deserve “the applause of society.”

Argentina Goes to the Polls Amid an Economic Crisis. Follow Our Coverage

“Argentines are disoriented by solutions given by those who, with good intentions, have the biggest of imaginations,” he said at the event, before turning to Bullrich to add: “But your case is different. You promise order, discipline, administrative speed and a state that works without miracles or gimmick tactics.”

The comments come as the race to govern Argentina heats up ahead of the Oct. 22 vote, with Milei exchanging sharp attacks with members of Bullrich’s Juntos por el Cambio coalition.

Eurnekian, 90, told the Financial Times in an interview published late Tuesday that he trusts Milei, the former chief economist at his holding company Corporacion America SA, to be the “most pro-market” candidate in the presidential race. At the same time, he criticized Milei’s proposal to change Argentina’s currency from the peso to the US dollar as a strategy to squash 124% inflation.

A spokesperson for Eurnekian said none of his comments should be understood as explicit support for any candidate.

Bullrich delivered a 30-minute speech that filled the room with applause over a lunch of steak and wine. It was followed by a question-and-answer session with her chief economist, Carlos Melconian, who provided few specifics about policy proposals.

Business advocates gathered at the event spared no criticism of the current Peronist government and Argentina’s economic situation. In opening remarks, Marcos Pereda, head of the business chamber known as CICyP that hosted the lunch, said the administration of President Alberto Fernandez has left the country “on the edge of hyperinflation.”

While business leaders generally back Bullrich’s probusiness coalition, it’s still to be seen if she would garner enough voting support next month to make it to a runoff. She is vying with Milei and the ruling coalition candidate, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, for one of the two spots in an eventual second round if none of them reach a 45% of valid votes (or 40% of them with a 10 percentage point difference from the runner-up.)

Read More: Javier Milei Wows Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Argentine Elite

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Eduardo Eurnekian pledges large-scale investments in Armenia

Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hosted national hero of Armenia, Argentine-Armenian businessman, philanthropist Eduardo Eurnekian.

“I’m glad for our recurrent meeting. Your visit, such meetings are always important, because you are one of the important investors in the Republic of Armenia, in particular, one of the most important Diaspora investors in the Republic of Armenia,” PM Nikol Pashinyan said as he welcomed Mr. Eurnekian.

“Our country has gone through very difficult trials. Just a few days ago, in the June 20 elections, our government reaffirmed its mandate under the slogan “There is a future.” And I hope that your agenda is aimed at restoring the economic optimism of our country and faith in the future. We value your personal role here a lot,” he added.

In his turn, Eduardo Eurnekian congratulated Nikol Pashinyan on the victory of the “Civil Contract” party in the elections. “Mr. Prime Minister, I am very moved by your words. Unfortunately, the pandemic has changed the agenda of all of us in terms of time, space and flights, but it seems that we are already overcoming it.”

“Mr. Prime Minister, I did not want it to be long, I wanted to come as soon as possible, to congratulate you on your victory, because it is very important, we supported your victory from the beginning,” Mr. Eurnekian said.

“We invest in different spheres in Armenia. And we tend to continue to make large-scale investments in Armenia. We are currently negotiating with a bank. We see a good growth in the tourism sector in Armenia, and fortunately, we will soon offer a new investment in the airport construction sector. My cousin Martin, who is currently in charge of all this, will be coming to Armenia very soon to contact the person you will indicate to discuss the investment plan,” he said.

Nikol Pashinyan and Eduardo Eurnekian discussed the programs implemented by “Armenia International Airports” CJSC in Armenia. In particular, they touched upon issues related to the development, improvement of infrastructure, renovation and further operation of Yerevan’s “Zvartnots” and Gyumri’s “Shirak” airports, which were given to the company for concession management. The interlocutors also exchanged views on other business programs planned by companies owned by Eduardo Eurnekian in Armenia in the near future.

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Home > General , News > US Congress will ac...

September 25, 2018

US Congress will acknowledge Eduardo Eurnekian and the IRWF for its “Houses of Life” Program

The US Congress will pay tribute to the “Houses of Life” project, an initiative that recognizes the anonymous heroes that saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis

The recognition will be presented to the Argentinean businessman, Eduardo Eurnekian, chairman of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF), founded by Baruj Tenembaum. In the last years more than 380 churches, convents and monasteries that served as refuge to Jews persecuted by the Nazis were identified in Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Albania.

Eduardo Eurnekian and Baruch Tenembaum – Photo: Guillermo Llamos

House of Life commemorative plaque

Piero Piperno was 15 years-old when in December 1943, in Rome, he and 11 members of his family managed to save their lives thanks to Mother María Elizabeth Hesselblad, a little nun who opened the back door of the Church of Santa Brigida and hid them till June 4, 1944, when the city was liberated from the Nazi occupation. The story of Piero and Mother Elizabeth is just one of the many stories of heroism, compassion and courage that, even after more than 70 years from the Holocaust, still deserve to be told. “In those days, there was not a great sense of solidarity between people. Following the liberation of Rome, we could get back to our businesses, our women returned to the Market of Campo dei Fiori to shop the groceries. People would greet us and say: “We know you were hidden by the nuns”, stated Piperno when he unveiled in 2015 the plaque that identified the Convent of Santa Brigida as a “House of Life”, and added: “We always spoke of those who left us, those who did not return because they were turned in. One day, we decided to change and started remembering the good people, those who had helped us, those who had risked their lives to save others”. It was in that spirit that the IRWF, presided by the Argentinean businessman Eduardo Eurnekian, started 4 years ago the “Houses of Life” program, an initiative aimed at shedding light over the hitherto unknown testimonies of religious women and men who risked their own lives to host Jews persecuted by the Nazis, identifying with memorial plaques the convents, churches, seminaries and schools where the persecuted ones had found shelter, food and care.

The Plaque that commemorates the “Houses of Life”, identified by the IRWF

From its inception, more than 380 “Houses of Life” were identified in Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Albania and this has led a group of US legislators – Democrats and Republicans – to promote the recognition of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, something the US Congress has already done back in 2014. The origin of the program goes back to the 1990’s, when the late Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, turned to his friend Baruj Tenembaum, Founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation , with a discreet request, suggesting that after the passing of Quarracino, the prestigious NGO should start researching and divulging the fact that Catholic Institutions had given refuge to Jews, thus saving them from extermination during the Holocaust.

Argentinean entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, back in 2014, being acknowledged by the US Congress

Between 1939 and 1945, during the Holocaust, a great number of Jewish parents facing imminent detention and deportation to the Concentration Camps (which resulted to be Extermination Camps), would leave their children in Catholic Institutions, with the hope that the latter would face a better destiny. Hence, many churches, convents, abbeys and catholic seminars turned into the home of a great number of children whose caretakers taught them to appear as Catholic in order to avoid being identified by the Nazis who invaded the cities and were looking after hidden Jews. Some of them, like in the case of Piero Piperno, did keep their Jewish faith, which was respected by their religious hosts. Others opted to convert to the Catholic faith and even became priests and nuns. These incredible stories of rescue were poorly known for many years, following explicit orders given by the Catholic authorities that wanted to preserve the integrity of those who were saved by them. The job of the IRWF, through the “Houses of Life” program, strives to shed light on those stories, and this effort has led the members of the US Congress – both Democrats and Republicans, to offer a special tribute to the Foundation in the person of its Chairman, Eduardo Eurnekian, which will be officially announced in the near future. It is not the first time that the US Congress pays tribute to the Wallenberg Foundation and to Eurnekian. Back in 2014, the Foundation and the Argentinean entrepreneur were acknowledged by the US Congress due to the “significant contribution to preserving and promoting the extraordinary legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, the WWII Swedish diplomat credited with saving scores of Jews in Budapest from the horrors of the Holocaust”. That same year, following an initiative of the IRWF, Raoul Wallenberg was posthumously bestowed the Congressional Gold Medal.

Baruj Tenembaum, Founder of the IRWF

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is an NGO with a mission to develop educational programs and public campaigns which promote the moral legacy of those who risked lives to save Jews during the Holocaust and in recognition of all the rescuers of all genocides. Founded by Tenembaum and presided by Eurnekian, it has amongst its members Jorge Mario Bergoglio, nowadays Pope Francis. The NGO carries the name of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust and himself became a victim when on January 17, 1945, he was detained and abducted by the Soviet forces stationed in Budapest. Ever since, his destiny continues to be a mystery.

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The Americas

Voters in argentina face one of the most consequential elections in recent memory.

Carrie Kahn

Voters will cast ballots Sunday in the presidential election. The race is between the country's finance minister and a political newcomer: a far-right libertarian economist and TV pundit.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Voters in Argentina are facing one of the most consequential presidential elections this Sunday in recent memory. They're also facing a difficult choice. The race is between the current minister overseeing Argentina's disastrous economy, where inflation now tops 140%, or a political newcomer, a far-right libertarian economist and television pundit. Here's NPR's Carrie Kahn.

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Javier Milei only became a politician two years ago when he won a seat in Congress for his new Freedom Advances party. Before that, he was the chief economist at one of Argentina's largest companies, a soccer goalie, a member of a Rolling Stones cover band and a tantric sex expert.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in Spanish).

KAHN: In this live TV performance, his girlfriend at the time sings about his prowess, while Milei awkwardly dances off-tempo by her side. He also dresses up as his fictional creation, General AnCap.

JAVIER MILEI: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: Sporting a cape and black mask and holding a golden spear, Milei explains in the social media post that his superhero comes from Liberland, located between Croatia and Serbia, where residents live free of taxes. Much of his fame, however, comes from his signature mop of unkempt hair, long sideburns and sharp tongue, which he prolifically uses to espouse ultraconservative libertarian ideals on TV and radio.

CARLOS MASLATON: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: Milei was a great messenger of the ideology, says Carlos Maslaton, a conservative financial influencer who often invited Milei on his morning drive radio show. The two have since parted company.

MASLATON: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: Maslaton says more media outlets would have him on as his antics generated great ratings, like the time Milei smashed a pinata in the shape of Argentina's central bank. He often sports a chainsaw at rallies, which he says he'll use to slash state spending and vows to ditch the peso for the U.S. dollar.

SERGIO MASSA: (Speaking Spanish).

MILEI: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: Milei's combative temperament comes up a lot on the campaign trail and during last Sunday's presidential debate as he sparred with the ruling party's candidate, Sergio Massa.

MASSA: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: "The debate is very long. Don't get so aggressive so early," Massa scolded Milei. Massa, a veteran politician and current economy minister, has managed to distance himself from the unpopular president and the country's dismal finances. He's also run a skillful campaign, warning Argentines just what they have to lose at the end of Milei's famous chainsaw, like in this ad flooding social media.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHAINSAW REVVING)

KAHN: The cartoon shows the chainsaw destroying free public education, health care and other generous government subsidies. University of Buenos Aires political science Professor Marcos Novaro says the fear campaign is working.

MARCOS NOVARO: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: Novaro says it's Milei's erratic style and radical politics that is alienating the very voters who should be flocking to him in protest over the government's poor handling of the economy. Recent comments by the candidate don't help him either, like his derisive digs at Argentine native Pope Francis, who Milei called a filthy leftist and supporter of murderous communists. His outsider status and bellicose behavior has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump and Brazil's former far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

EDUARDO EURNEKIAN: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: That may have lost him the vote of one of Argentina's richest men, Eduardo Eurnekian, Milei's former employer who told me he still not sure who he'll vote for come Sunday, although he did say Milei was a good worker. Pollsters say the race is tight and too close to call.

Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Buenos Aires.

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