'I'm the king and I will destroy you!': Argentinian president stages frenetic stadium appearance

Javier Milei stuns nation with book release party-cum-rock concert described as ‘pagan mass’ in famed Buenos Aires venue

Facundo Iglesia in Buenos Aires and Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent
Thu 23 May 2024 12.02 EDT

Argentinians call him “the Madman”. This week he declared himself their monarch.

“I’m the king of a lost world! I’m the king and I will destroy you!” Javier Milei bellowed into the microphone on Wednesday night as Argentina’s showman president took to the stage for his first stadium gig since his election last year.

The concert, at a famed 8,000-capacity arena in Buenos Aires called Luna Park, drew hordes of adoring rightwing fans – the majority young men – who had come to see their rock-loving libertarian leader up close and wearing a knee-length leather jacket.

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The rock concert – at which the president’s specially assembled band played tracks by the Argentinian hard rock band La Renga – will help cement Milei’s growing international reputation as what Time magazine this week called “the world’s most eccentric head of state”. It will also bolster his position as a leading member of the global hard right, alongside Donald Trump, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Playing on the drums alongside Argentina’s president was Bertie Benegas Lynch, a pro-Milei congressman whose T-shirt featured the yellow Gadsden rattlesnake – a symbol of Milei’s movement and the US far right – and the message: “Don’t tread on me!”

During the show, Milei railed against the “damned communists” he blames for Argentina’s economic malaise and the “enemies who are trying to overturn this government because they want socialism and misery to continue” as well as the “murderous” pro-choice movement. “I eat the elites for breakfast!” Milei sang, slightly altering the lyrics of the La Renga track Panic Show.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/23/javier-milei-buenos-aires-argentina