How chainsaw-wielding economist Javier 'El Loco' Milei went from TV pundit to Argentina's president - ABC News

Presidents often have varied routes to power.

But few are guided by the spirit of their dead dog.

It's one of many outlandish claims made by Argentinian president Javier Milei, whose eccentric public persona has earned him the nickname, El Loco, translated literally as "the crazy man".

Indeed this is the self-described anarcho-capitalist who wielded a chainsaw at political rallies, called the Pope a "leftist son of a bitch", and counts Elon Musk and Al Capone as his personal heroes.

But experts say Milei's larger-than-life public image is far from accidental. Rather, it's a shrewd political strategy that borrows tactics from US presidential candidate Donald Trump – even down to his campaign tagline: "Make Argentina Great Again".

And in a nation worn down by decades of economic crisis, it seems to be working.

Javier Milei was born in 1970 in Buenos Aires to a homemaker and a bus driver. He has characterised his childhood as troubled.

"He himself has been pretty open about the fact that his father was verbally and sometimes physically abusive. He used to beat him," says Vera Bergengruen, national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal, who interviewed Milei for TIME Magazine in April this year.

"People around him described him as having a pretty lonely childhood and having few friends back then – always being a bit of that personality that we see now."

It was around this time that Milei first got his nickname, El Loco.

In Spanish, the moniker describes someone "out of the norm", whose way of thinking is "a little bit extraordinary", says Constanza Sanhueza, a political science lecturer specialising in Latin American politics at Australian National University.

"This is not a traditional character and he's not trying to be," she tells ABC Radio National's Take Me To Your Leader.

Take Me To Your Leader examines the cultural, historical, geographical and personal origins underpinning the ambitions of the people on the world stage.

The collapse of Argentina's exchange rate in the early 1980s piqued Milei's interest in economics. He got his bachelor's degree and two master's degrees in the field and went on to work as an economist in academia and the private sector.

In the 2010s, he rose to fame as a bombastic and foul-mouthed political TV pundit, known for lashing out at his political rivals — "tower of manure" and "bloodsucking parasite" stand out in a list of vile insults catalogued by an Argentinian tabloid.

In 2021, Milei established the far-right coalition, La Libertad Avanza, and assumed office in the Argentine Congress, where he established a monthly raffle to give away his salary to a random Argentinian.

The following year, he officially launched his presidential campaign, and by the end of 2023 he had bested his opponent, career politician and centre-leftist Sergio Massa, by a landslide.

With his leather jacket, Wolverine-style haircut, and flair for the dramatic, everything about Milei indicated that he intended to rattle the status quo, especially when it came to the economy.

For decades, Argentinians had experienced multiple economic crises, leading to triple-digit inflation. By the time Milei took office in December 2023, the country had a fiscal deficit of 2 trillion pesos and more than half its population was living in poverty.

"Argentina democratised 40 years ago and [because of this] the parties are not highly institutionalised. There are new parties that are emerging and competing, new factions that create new alliances," Dr Sanhueza explains.

"Argentines are used to having parties dying and emerging … [which] are not able to reduce the levels of inflation."

The country made economic history in 2001 by defaulting on $260 billion worth of debt repayments, cycling through three presidents in three days and reaching an unemployment rate of 18 per cent. It defaulted again in 2014 and yet again in 2020.

"There is not only a big part of the population that is desperate for change and economic stability, but you also have cohorts … that have never lived in a country that is stable," Dr Sanhueza says.

"People in Argentina have been living like this for so long.

"They are incredibly adaptable, but they are really, really hoping that they are living through the very rock bottom and are going to be going up from now on."

Enter Milei and his chainsaw.

As a libertarian economist, he promised to hack away at the size of the state, dismantle government ministries, lower taxes, get rid of the Central Bank and promote free trade.

In a presidential debate in October 2023, he claimed: "Give me 20 years and we'll be Italy – with 35, the USA."

Milei's Argentina is the polar opposite of that envisioned by the previous centre-left alliance, which over 16 years established a large, centralised government focused on social welfare but accused of economic mismanagement.

Eduardo Amadeo, a diplomat, economist, and economic advisor to Milei's security minister, explains the president's approach in a few simple words.

"The essential philosophical aspect is freedom, freedom and freedom," he says.

"Argentina has failed for the last 40 years in every single aspect of life: social, political and economic. So people didn't want to vote for someone from the same group."

Milei's social policies also run counter to those of his predecessors.

A far-right conservative, he supports unrestricted gun ownership and limits on immigration. He's also vehemently anti-abortion, calling it "aggravated murder" and "a tragedy".

For a politician obsessed with economic theory, Milei's public appearances are anything but dry.

From smashing a piñata shaped like the Central Bank to claiming he used to work as a tantric sex coach, nothing is off-limits for this maverick personality.

Then there are the dogs, which Milei calls his "four-legged children".

The president was so besotted with his English mastiff Conan that, when the dog died, he had it cloned into four genetic copies, all named after famous economists.

Yet, the original Conan still reigns supreme, apparently communicating with his former owner via a mystic — and at one point instructing him to run for president.

Milei's political views are at times contradictory. His social conservatism stands alongside his support for legalising drugs and sex work. He has banned gender-inclusive language in his government but is largely indifferent to same-sex marriage.

He's also in favour of legalising the organ trade, declaring in a TV interview during his presidential campaign that it would be a "market mechanism" to solve the problem of a lack of organ donors.

But this scattergun approach is what sets Milei apart from his predecessors, Amadeo says.

"He looks crazy. He loves to look crazy. His madness is part of his political tools, and it's very successful," he says.

"The society needed a new character, a different character in politics."

Bergenruen believes Milei has had an outsized impact outside Argentina, too.

"He's become a right-wing icon in Europe. In the United States, a lot of people really like this idea of him just taking a chainsaw to the government," she says.

"It's almost this fever dream, this fantasy. Even people who aren't really libertarians or ascribed to all his beliefs just find him incredibly entertaining."

Bergenruen says that in person, Milei comes across as "a true believer in his own methods and in his own ideology".

"At the same time, he is very rigid about what he believes, [with] a very low tolerance for criticism from journalists, from opposition candidates, from anyone who thinks that his approach might not be the best one.

"I think he's just someone who doesn't see any benefit to moderating his temperament."

Those around him tend to agree.

"I've spoken to his economic minister, his foreign minister, his spokesman, everyone who kind of represents him on the outside, and they all say, 'We don't bother trying to rein him in. This is what people loved, this is what people voted for'," Bergenruen says.

From his view inside the government, Amadeo says Milei's eccentricity doesn't get in the way of running a country.

"Yes, he talks every morning with the dogs," he says.

"But the dogs are not important for the daily operation of politics. [They're] just part of his successful appearance in the political life of Argentina, [signalling] 'I'm different'."

And this method appears to be working. While Milei's popularity appears to have fallen somewhat amid austerity measures, his support remains robust, particularly among younger voters.

"His popularity has endured and every political analyst I've spoken to says that's pretty remarkable," Bergenruen says.

"We don't know exactly if and how he would flame out, but so far, his popularity and his backing by the public has proved pretty stunningly resilient, given the fact that things haven't really improved."

So, has Milei's radical approach put an end to the country's economic woes?

His first six months in power saw Argentina's first budget surplus in 16 years, and his government predicts inflation will shrink to just 18 per cent by the end of 2025.

In April, when the first surplus was announced, he declared: "We are making possible the impossible."

But at the same time, poverty rates edged above 50 per cent and unemployment reached 7.7 per cent, up from 5.7 per cent at the end of 2023.

Since Milei's appointment, Argentinians have taken to the streets to protest harsh austerity measures, which have gutted public health, social welfare, research and education services.

In June, a violent riot broke out outside Congress in Buenos Aires over controversial austerity legislation that granted Milei sweeping executive powers.

In response, the president called protesters "terrorists" and restated his plan to "change Argentina" and "make it the most liberal country in the world".

Bergenruen says this is a leader who will not back down from a fight.

"He very sincerely and single-mindedly believes in his plan for Argentina," she says.

"He needs to be exactly himself in order to be effective."