Argentina’s Milei channels William Wallace with ‘long live freedom’ cry

Like an Argentine William Wallace, Javier Milei cried “freedom” at the end of a World Economic Forum speech in Davos in which he put forward a case for radical global capitalism.

Argentina’s new President delivered a neoclassical economics lecture the likes of which the staid halls have rarely heard in 54 years.

Part neoclassical economics lecture, part Trumpian tirade, he called for small government, the removal of bureaucratic elites, and the culling of any form of gender equality policies, while also attacking collectivist economics.

After all, socialism “murdered 100 million people”, he said, met by muted laughter from those in attendance.

“Long live freedom, dammit!” he said to applause after a 23-minute address.

Mr Milei took office last month after an election campaign punctuated with populist tirades in which he pledged to close the central bank and reduce government spending.

Amid Argentina’s worst economic crisis in decades, he hopes to tame annual inflation – currently above 200 per cent – build up foreign currency reserves and bring back investment.

The trip to Davos – attended by a mix of the elites he rails against and the business tycoons his policies would enrich – marks Mr Milei’s first overseas tour since he took office.

He has even pledged to stick by his radical policies including shutting down the central bank. During his address, Mr Milei, who earlier took selfies and fought through a media scrum to exit the main hall, put forward the claim that humanity’s growth and wealth creation were both substantial before governments began to interfere.

He took particular aim at socialists and their policies.

“Impoverishment created by collectivism is no fantasy – it is an inescapable fate,” he said, in an attack on Argentina’s past governments and other left-leaning administrations.

“We have lived through this, we have been through this – ever since we decided to live through this model … poorer and poorer day by day.”

“I’m here to tell you that the western world is in danger and it is endangered because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inextricably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty.”

He asked those in the audience to go out and sell his agenda to the world.

Mr Milei travelled on a commercial plane to save the $300,000 it would cost to hire a chartered flight.