Хавиер Милей: политическия дискурс и реторика на аржентинския президент
Javier Millay: The Political Discourse and Rhetoric of the Argentine President

Author(s): Joana Todorova
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Political Theory, Sociology, Government/Political systems, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: Javier Milei; political discourse; anti-system rhetoric; delegative democracy; neoliberal populism; technopopulism; free market; peronism; populism
Summary/Abstract: The present paper examines the political discourse and rhetoric ofArgentine President Javier Milei in the period from his presidential campaign and the establishment of the political party La Libertad Avanza (2021) to the present (2025). The topic is highly relevant, as it reflects the emergence of a new political order and the consolidation of hybrid-radical models of governance that combine anti-system rhetoric, technopopulism, neoliberal populism, and a tendency toward delegative democracy. The study analyzes Milei’s main discursive and communicative strategies through which he constructs his public image as an anti-system yet charismatic leader who opposes the political “casta”, clearly delineates the “enemy” on both regional and global levels, and entirely rejects traditional norms of political ethics and morality. As a significant part of Argentina’s political history, and of the contemporary global context, the paper provides a historical and political framework of Argentine populism, tracing its evolution from Peronism through Kirchnerism to its modern manifestation in the governance of Javier Milei. Special attention is devoted to the president’s use of anti-peronist and anti-socialist discourse combined with economic radicalism and a cult of the free market. Within the broader populist framework, Milei’s politics can be defined as a form of neoliberal populism - a populism that defends the market rather than the people. The paper also analyzes Milei’s foreign policy orientations, notably his demonstrative pro-israeli and pro-american stance, his withdrawal from BRICS, and his distancing from the Paris Agreement and MERCOSUR, which together express a new kind of populist foreign-policy strategy. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that Javier Milei’s political communication represents a new form of leadership, in which extreme rhetoric and the symbolic dismantling of the old order function simultaneously as a means of legitimation and as a tool for consolidating power within the context of an eroding democracy.

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