MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei: “Taxes are theft”

Milei insisted Meloni was a very courageous woman

Argentine President Javier Milei said this weekend in an interview with the Italian TV Quarta Repubblica to be aired Monday that taxes “are theft.” The South American leader also insisted that “public spending cuts are not an unpopular measure.” Milei spent the weekend in Rome where he had a meeting with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and participated in other business and political engagements.

Taxes “are paid with a gun pointed at the head,” Milei also argued. “How can taxes be good if they are imposed? They are theft, they are not necessary,” he insisted.

Milei also underlined that new winds were blowing with leaders like him, Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President-elect Donald Trump. ”This plague of awakened socialism is over. Worse than a plague, a cancer (...) Socialism, at all times, is an impoverishing phenomenon fed by envy, hatred, rancor,“ Milei went on. But in his mind ”there is no doubt“ these four leaders were ”changing the world view.“

”Our enemies are socialist ideas, it is the left“, although, he clarified: ”China is not an enemy, it has particularities and is working on the transition from a capitalist system to a freer system,“ explained the Libertarian leader, who described Meloni as ”a truly courageous woman, with great flexibility when it comes to moving forward“ in ”difficult situations.”

Milei also said he was on good terms with French President Emmanuel Macron -who never hid when torpedoing the Mercosur-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) - as well as with South African-born tycoon Elon Musk, “a savior” who in Milei's opinion could be likened to Michelangelo or Leonardo.

Regarding the UN, Milei said it was “a group of authoritarian bureaucrats far removed from humanity.” The United Nations “is the ultimate expression of what used to be called fatal arrogance: 87 people have claimed the right to choose what to do with the fate of the planet,” the South American leader noted.