MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei launches presidential bid in fiasco event attended by only a few

Not even a previous show by singer El Dipy seemed to lure more followers to the El Porvenir stadium

Argentine Congressman Javier Milei, who had been slated as a strong presidential contender in next year's elections, Friday staged a major fiasco when in a football stadium with a capacity of 14,000 people, only some 1,500 gathered to see him launch his Casa Rosada bid.

The low turnout was consistent with his recent fall in most polls after stating there was nothing wrong with selling human organs for transplants. Not even a previous show by singer El Dipy seemed to lure more followers to the El Porvenir stadium, in the southern outskirts of the City of Buenos Aires, to watch Milei deliver his speech at around 9 pm Friday.

His motto that “whenever there's a right, someone has to pay for it” inspired by Supreme Court Justice Carlos Rosenkrantz was also overlooked by those who up to two to three weeks ago assured they would vote for Milei, whose most loyal followers did show up in black leather jackets and black pants. El Porvenir's appearance was Milei's candidacy-launching ceremony.

“I got into the filthy swamp of politics so that Argentina becomes a power again. The formula is capitalism and hard work,” he added. “They call us any kind of slander because it is us against all, the thieving politicians, the corrupt businessmen, the bribe-taking journalists, and the sham trade unionists. We are the ones who have come to change history,” the Congressman insisted.

“We ask for the vote to take power away from them and give it back to the people. That is why they are afraid” of us, he went on.

“We do not need a focus to see what we answer. We do it from our conviction and moral values,” he also pointed out.

“This is a historic opportunity to defeat the caste and put the country on its feet. Only to the damned caste is this [economic] model convenient. They are all socialists, [with] good or bad manners,” he insisted.

“Some people sow doubts about whether we have a model. Our guide is the model of liberalism. We can look at our history. In 1860 when Alberdi's Constitution is applied we stopped being a barbaric country. Another case is Ireland. You have the case of India, which, by adopting a liberal model, multiplied its GDP per capita elevenfold. Free countries are eight times richer than repressed countries,” he also underlined.