MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei closing federal agency against discrimination and racism

“Politicians have to accept that people despise them,” Milei insisted

Argentine President Javier Milei's administration Thursday announced it would dissolve the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (Inadi) in a move to cut public spending, it was reported in Buenos Aires. In making his decision, Milei argued that the Inadi, which includes some 400 workers and had dozens of delegations nationwide, was the “Thought Police” of Kirchnerism.

The Inadi is the first of “an endless number” of state institutes that Milei's government “is determined to close or dismantle,” Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni said. “We are not going to continue financing neither the political thread, nor places where political favors are paid, nor hundreds or dozens of hierarchical positions that do not add up to anything,” he added.

Adorni, an economist himself, noted that it was Argentine taxpayers who financed these agencies but regretted that the bureaucratic times to eliminate those institutes were longer than desired. The Inadi was created by law in 1995 “to develop policies and concrete measures” against discrimination, xenophobia, and racism. It originally functioned within the Ministry of the Interior and in 2005 it was reassigned to the Justice Ministry.

In 2022, then Inadi head Victoria Donda resigned after it was reported she had offered an Inadi job to her housekeeper as a form of severance money. It was determined Donda's personal worker had not been properly registered before the Labor Ministry.

This week, Milei's Government extended the intervention of Inadi for 180 days and appointed María de los Angeles Quiroga at the helm of the agency. Opposition leaders criticized Milei's measure but his followers argued that the Inadi had repeatedly kept silent in the face of discrimination suffered by people not aligned with Kirchnerism.

Milei insisted Thursday that, after the failure of his Omnibus Law bill to pass through Congress, the provincial governors were now the ones trying to contact the national government to ask for clues,“ He underlined that the bill's end helped sort out ”the ideological spectrum“ of the various political leaders.

”The chainsaw [on public spending] is hitting politics the hardest“, said Milei who insisted that ”there is light at the end of the tunnel.“ He further argued that ”50 thousand people were dismissed from the State who did not work, 10 thousand contracts were not renewed.“ Milei claimed in a TV interview that his government represented ”a structural change that wants a 180-degree change.“

”Politicians have to accept that people despise them,“ he added.

Regarding a possible merger between La Libertad Avanza and former President Mauricio Macri's PRO, Milei said that ”both spaces have to solve internal issues“ which is ”a process that requires time.”