• Elections Argentina prepares for the overwhelming arrival of 'Hurricane Milei'
  • Peronism suffers the worst defeat in its history and Milei's libertarian far-right wins the Argentine primaries

Convinced that he can become president of Argentina this Sunday, Javier Milei closed his electoral campaign before 14,000 people on Wednesday night, riding on a euphoria that led his mentor to escalate the confrontation with Pope Francis and propose the rupture of relations with the Vatican.

"Out of consideration for the Catholic religion, out of respect for that religion, I think we should imitate what President (Julio Argentino) Roca did: that is, suspend diplomatic relations with the Vatican while the totalitarian spirit prevails at the head of the Vatican," said Alberto Benegas Lynch Jr., the only one to speak at the event, in addition to Milei himself.

The proposal by Benegas Lynch, a veteran liberal whom Milei defines as a "hero," is in line with the disqualifications of the winner of the August presidential primaries of the Argentine pope. "What I'm going to say next doesn't compromise Javier Milei's position, I fully assume what I'm going to say," said Benegas Lynch, 83, who holds a PhD in economics and is a member of three Argentine National Academies.

In his speech, Milei did not refer to the proposal of Benegas Lynch, second cousin of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, whose full name was Ernesto Guevara Lynch de la Serna, a controversial icon of the Cuban revolution that brought the Castros to power in 1959.

Milei and Jorge Bergoglio, who until 2013 was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, do not know each other, but the rejection of Pope Francis is one of the pillars of Milei's rise in politics. Years ago, a libertarian called the pope "the evil one." A few weeks ago, during an interview with the ultraconservative American journalist Tucker Carlson, he harshly attacked Francis: "The Pope plays politically, he has strong political interference, he has shown great affinity with dictators like Castro and Maduro, he is on the side of bloody dictatorships."

The polarization with the first Latin American pope in history pays off electorally to Milei, whose closing act of the campaign included insults to a good part of the political arc, chants insisting that "the caste is afraid" and videos in which nuclear explosions and demolitions of buildings were observed as a preview of what he plans to do if he is installed in the Casa Rosada on December 10.

The polls, which are very unreliable in Argentina, show Milei, leader of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), with a few points ahead of Patricia Bullrich, of the social-liberal coalition Together for Change (JxC), and Sergio Massa, of Peronism, who are fighting for second place. That advantage would not be enough to avoid the November 19 runoff, although in recent days several analysts warned of the possibility of the appearance of a "black swan", of an unexpected result.

Milei, who can be defined as an ultra-liberal populist, once again showed his contempt for the democracy regained in Argentina in 1983. "We have probably passed the desert of 40 years to regain freedom," he shouted, to the euphoria of his supporters. The 40 years Milei mentions are the years with the highest level of freedoms and democracy in Argentine history, a period that began in 1983 with the radical (social democrat) Raúl Alfonsín after the savage military dictatorship that began in 1976.

The renewed attack on the pope has its roots in something that happened 139 years ago. In 1884, then-President Roca expelled the apostolic nuncio Luis Mattera from Argentina after accusing him of meddling in the country's internal affairs. Argentina was in the midst of a debate around Law 1420, which established common, free, compulsory and secular education, one of the pillars on which a country that would become one of the largest number of immigrants in the world was sustained. In his second term, Roca re-established relations with the Holy See.

This week, the 86-year-old pope himself warned his compatriots of the danger of following "a messiah." "We were all young people with no experience and sometimes boys and girls cling to miracles, to messiahs, to things being resolved in a messianic way. The Messiah is one who saved us all. The others are all clowns of messianism," Francis said during an interview with the official Telam news agency.

"No one can promise conflict resolution if not through crises going upwards. And not only. Let's think about any kind of political crisis, in a country that doesn't know what to do, in Europe there are several... What do you do? Are we looking for a messiah who will come to save us from without? Let's look for where the conflict is, grab it, and resolve it. Managing conflict is a wisdom. But without conflicts, you can't move forward," added Francisco, 86.

Milei's attacks on the pope led the religious leader's entourage to assume that he will not travel during Holy Week 2024 to Uruguay, southern Brazil and Argentina, his native country, which he has not set foot in since he was elected as God's representative on Earth in 2013.

However, in the interview with Télam, the Pope himself revived the possibility of such a trip: "Do you still have important trips left?" the interviewer asked. "Well, yes, Argentina. I'd like to go... Speaking of the furthest away, I still have Papua New Guinea. But someone told me that since I'm going to Argentina, I should stop at Rio Gallegos, then the South Pole, land in Melbourne and visit New Zealand and Australia. It would be a bit long."

During the closing ceremony of the campaign, EL MUNDO spoke with Milei voters about the tensions with the pope. Alan Sanchez Rival, 17 years old (in Argentina you vote from the age of 16), believes that the tension is not good.

Young Argentines who will vote for Javier MileiSebastián Fest

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I think it's wrong, that I shouldn't have to say that to anyone, but I thought it was good that Milei apologized in the second debate with the Pope, who is the best Argentine."

Milei insists on promising that only he knows how to get out of the chronic economic crisis that Argentina is experiencing: the solution is to bet on liberalism, he says. "In 15 or 20 years we can be like France, like Italy, like Spain. In 30 years, like Germany, in 35, like the United States, and in 40, like Ireland."

It's not the first time he's said it, though Milei doesn't say why, on his particular scale, Ireland is the most coveted target.

On the outskirts of the stadium where the event was held, all kinds of merchandising was sold, from caps to T-shirts, balloons, umbrellas and other objects, with logos and legends in support of Milei. One of the T-shirts reflected La Libertad Avanza's stance against gender ideology: "Patriarchy is what I have hanging here."

The T-shirts that were sold at the eventSEBASTIÁN FEST

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