MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Milei would never run alongside lukewarm doves who rejected him

We want to break with the ideas that have destroyed our country in the last 100 years, Milei insisted after JxC's rejection

Argentine Libertarian Deputy Javier Milei replied that Kirchnerism is back “because of the failure of the model of the lukewarm doves” of Juntos por el Cambio.

The economist made those remarks Wednesday after a JxC convention announced that Milei was not welcome to join the front's race for the presidency in 2023.

“There are actors in political life who seek the breakup of Juntos por el Cambio, among them Javier Milei, who is not part of JxC and tries to break our unity by being functional to oficialism,” JxC said through a statement.

“We are change without anarchy. We were and are, more than a decade ago, the limit to Kirchnerism that Argentina needs,” the document went on.

A group of former President Mauricio Macri's PRO (a member of the JxC coalition) favored Milei joining the movement ahead of the 2023 elections. But the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) of former Presidents Raúl Alfonsín and Fernando de la Rúa and the Coalición Cívica opposed bringing Milei aboard.

“We are a new force that comes to transform Argentina. We want to break with the ideas that have destroyed our country in the last 100 years. We could never run within a space that has been co-responsible for failure,” said Milei on Twitter as he invited “all those who share our ideas” to join his own presidential effort.

“Today CFK, La Cámpora and Alberto govern because of the failure of the model of the lukewarm doves of JxC. They locked us up for a year and a half with the support of [Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez] Larreta and [the UCR] radical governors. They voted together in Congress. Our vote is transversal and its basis is the failure of the caste model,” Milei insisted. He had already publicly warned he had no intention of joining an electoral coalition with the UCR and the “soft” sectors of the opposition.

JxC leaders gathered Wednesday at the Hannah Arendt Institute in Buenos Aires to define their electoral strategy for 2023. The meeting was attended by Macri, Larreta, Gerardo Morales (UCR Chairman and Jujuy Governor of Jujuy) and María Eugenia Vidal, among others.

During the meeting, a handbook of good practices was approved, which provides that “for the enlargement of JxC there must be unanimity of the parties that make up the alliance.”

“Diversity in unity has been since its origins a mark of this coalition. The conformation of the National Bureau of JxC was a relevant step in this path, by constituting an area of discussion where the member parties are represented, have a voice and make decisions,” the coalition highlighted.

It added that “given the imminence of returning to dispute the national government and the provincial and municipal governments in 2023, it becomes essential to take a further step towards consolidation by establishing rules of operation.”

Morales had said Milei was a dandy who “does not know the reality of the country.”

PRO Chairwoman Patricia Bullrich said that the leaders had agreed on the “need to strengthen JxC and to generate an agreement that is forceful and consistent with a true vocation for change, which is what we really need.”