The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, did not travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos to pay homage to the bureaucrats who meet year after year to compare notes on how they have continued to mess up the world with their global policies. He left that to the other attendees. Milei traveled to Davos to do just the opposite and tell the handful of bureaucrats in their own lair that they had been doing everything so, so poorly, and because of their policies, the West is now on the edge of a precipice.
"Today I am here to tell you that the West is in danger," Milei began his speech at the 2024 edition of the World Economic Forum.
"It is in danger because those who are supposed to defend Western values find themselves co-opted by a worldview that inexorably leads to socialism and, consequently, poverty," he continued.
We at Voz Media have already covered the entire speech extensively, but it is still important to call attention to the reaction it has provoked. Media in the United States and the United Kingdom have classified it as a historic speech, and different public figureheads, from the famous psychologist Jordan Peterson, to the right-wing Spanish politician, Esperanza Aguirre, have praised it.
The speech was not only trending number one in Argentina, Milei's home turf, but worldwide the name of Javier Milei was trending across all social networks. Today, everyone is talking about how the president of Argentina, an academic, quirky, and very energetic outsider who only recently arrived in politics, uttered the most challenging words ever spoken at the world's most important and controversial economic forum.
It's no small feat. The first world does not usually regard Argentina as a very significant country. But Javier Milei, since his presidential campaign, has become an unprecedented phenomenon. For example, Tucker Carlson, the most important conservative journalist in the United States, who is not often interested in issues outside his country's borders, traveled to Buenos Aires to meet and interview the then-libertarian candidate.
Javier Milei has the world at his feet. Due to his boldness, his talent as a pedagogue and his ideological clarity, he is emerging as a world reference on how to promote the ideas of freedom that bring prosperity, and how to combat collectivist ideas, which only generate poverty.
This Machiavellian notion that politics is the art of deception is popular. Politicians who have plenty of cunning and lack principles come to the palaces. That ideas, coherence, or firmness are burdens that the talented get rid of along the way. Javier Milei is proof that it does not have to be this way. He is living proof that you can reach the Presidency and be the most popular person in your country while still telling and upholding the truth, even if it is uncomfortable. He proves you can influence everyone by clearly explaining your beliefs and principles.
When Milei, at rallies, told the tens of thousands who supported him, "There is no money, and we are going to cut spending!" the crowd applauded. If this isn't a sign that times have changed, I don't know what is.
The king of the free world has spoken, and the world listened.
