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Its pride. Its sense of self-worth. Its hauteur. Its soul can be felt on the streets of Buenos Aires, but the mood is also tempered by wariness and introspection. Slightly faltering. Uncertain.
The city has echoes of Paris, but is more reminiscent of Bucharest. There is wealth inequality, and evident splendour, as there is in most cities. But overall both the private and public realms are frayed. The buses are old, as are many cars. The civic buildings need painting. Around them the streets and flower-beds are neglected and littered.
Nobody doubts that this is a country that underperforms. That has seen better times. That feels an inner need to stand taller again.
People vote for pain as a last resort. When all the more palatable alternatives have been exhausted. President Milei has been described and derided as a populist, but he is also an unpopulist. A teller of uncomfortable home truths. A bringer of the reckoning.
At the core of his diagnosis is a myopic focus on Argentina's economic malaise. He has little evident interest in a broader domestic public policy agenda. Milei is a ruthless prioritiser. He believes economic shock therapy is necessary and a precondition for national renewal.
That starts with fiscal discipline. Bold ideas like dollarisation attract attention, but also detract from the more basic, core, primary objective. Balancing the books. Not living beyond Argentina's means. Tough discipline.
It is probably a label he likes. But it is not necessary to be an economic libertarian to see the danger of chronic fiscal incontinence. Printing money. Unaffordable spending. More borrowing. More loans. More defaults. More inflation.
Maybe the Argentinian public will tire of the pain. Because there is pain. And maybe the discipline is not just politically risky, but economically too, as the screws are turned on the contraction. But, for Milei, the reckoning cannot be avoided. The old carousel is not turning anymore. The music has stopped. There is no alternative.
But if balancing the books is essential for renewal, it is not sufficient. There must be a Stage Two in the economic overhaul. The suffering patient needs emergency surgery, but then a longer-term recovery plan.
Argentina is rich in commodities and potential, but remains wracked with systemic economic problems. The inefficiencies. The low productivity. The protectionism. The cronyism. These deficiencies are endemic, and unpicking them is a necessary precondition for sustained wealth creation and prosperity. But weaning a population off a system to which they have become accustomed is an even bigger task than balancing the budget. It requires a new mindset, not just new public spending rules.
Milei also commands huge attention beyond Argentina. He sees the restoration of Argentinian greatness as more than economic renewal. He is an ideological crusader.
He relishes positions and alignments that are an anathema to most Latin American leaders. Reneging on Argentinian membership of the expanded BRICS, or holding associate membership status of NATO, may be more signalling than practically consequential. But what signals. What clarity.
Of course, the reality is never quite the same as the brochure. All leaders must compromise and finesse their relationships. China is a fact of life for an economically straightened Argentina. Brazil is always the bigger neighbour.
And many Argentinians, including those who acknowledge that things could not carry on at home as they were, and voted accordingly, wince at Milei's international crudity. The crass offensiveness, without obvious upsides. The starry-eyed keenness to win the approval of totemic political and technology leaders.
Maybe the best way to view the international version of Milei is as a painting in primary colours. He wins attention; bangs a loud drum; brashly conveys a message of Argentinian regeneration and new ambition. And while nuance and compromise have a place in international relations, so does uncompromising clarity. Ronald Reagan was an actor, not a diplomat. But he understood that the Soviet Union had failed on its own terms, and that the Berlin Wall was a physical affront to humanity. And he said so.
He changes the rules. He inverts and contorts them. Measuring him by his ability to adhere to those rules is to misunderstand him. When he says he admires Margaret Thatcher, he is not just making an economic point. He is deliberately subverting what is allowed to be said, and not said, in Argentinian politics. He is showing his disdain for convention and restraint.
This impulse will define Milei, and his legacy. Can he succeed? How will he be judged in fifty years from now?
Already he has exceeded the lowest expectations. Those who anticipated an instant implosion have been confounded. He has shown more ability to work the system than many believed possible. He might complete his full term in office. He might win a second term. But he depends on the fickleness of public consent, and walks a tightrope, always vulnerable to those who wish him political ill.
But whatever happens, maybe it does not really matter. Milei will not succeed if success means turning Argentina into a Latin American Switzerland, with conspicuous efficiency and prosperity. But that is not the measurement.
Milei cannot finish the journey of national renewal, because it will remain a work in progress. He may not be able to even advance it beyond its initial phase into the further necessary stages. But he started it. That is what matters. He started it.
Milei called time on what had gone before but could not continue. He said what needed to be said but could not be said. He has told home truths. Stark and uncomfortable truths. He is a volatile disruptor, not a manager or an administrator.
And now Milei has happened, Argentina cannot go back. Milei cannot unhappen. It may well be a more conventional leader who continues the journey. That may be sooner, or it may be later. The journey will not be linear or smooth. But it will be necessary. And Milei's permanent legacy is that he started the journey.
From 2010 to 2012, Jeremy served as Minister of State for Latin America in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Since leaving elected office, he has served as the City of London Corporation’s Special Representative to the EU, worked as an International Business Ambassador for Aberdeen Standard Investments (abrdn), and advised the environmental investment firm Renewity. Jeremy became CEO of Canning House, the UK’s leading forum on Latin America, in 2022.
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