![Javier Milei, presidential candidate of the Liberty Advances coalition, celebrates after dealing the incumbent Peronist party a historic defeat](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/08/14/TELEMMGLPICT000345739667_16920146054210_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Hard-Right rock singer and ‘tantric sex instructor’ takes shock lead in Argentinian elections
Javier Milei, a Libertarian who embraces comparisons with Trump, is now the frontrunner to be president after voting in the primaries
![Javier Milei, presidential candidate of the Liberty Advances coalition, celebrates after dealing the incumbent Peronist party a historic defeat](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/08/14/TELEMMGLPICT000345739667_16920146054210_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
A hard-Right radical economist, former rock singer and self-described “tantric sex instructor” has taken a shock lead in Argentina’s presidential primary elections after dealing the incumbent Peronist party a historic defeat.
Javier Milei, a libertarian conservative known as “The Wig” for his eccentric hairstyle, and who embraces comparisons with Donald Trump, is now the frontrunner in October’s elections after his triumph in a primary vote on Sunday.
“We are the true opposition,” Mr Milei said as he took aim at the centre-Left Peronist party, which has held power for 16 of the last 20 years and is largely controlled by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former president.
“We’re not only going to end Kirchnerism, but we’re also going to end the useless, parasitic, criminal political caste that is sinking this country,” said Mr Milei, who wants his country to gain a Hong Kong-style gradual transfer of sovereignty over the Falklands from Britain.
The 52-year-old outsider who was endorsed by Jair Bolsonaro, the former hard-Right president of Brazil, plans to adopt the dollar as the national currency and abolish Argentina’s central bank in a country suffering 116 per cent inflation and a cost of living crisis leaving four in 10 people in poverty.
The “anarcho-capitalist”, who has built ties with Spain’s hard-Right Vox party, has pledged to cut taxes and spearhead an austerity programme to help pay off the country’s $44 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund.
“A different Argentina is impossible with the same old things that have always failed,” Mr Milei said, before thanking his five mastiff dogs, each of which is named after a conservative economist.
Voting in the primaries is obligatory for most adults and each person gets one vote, making it in effect a dress rehearsal for the general election and giving a clear indication of who is the favourite to win the presidency.
The vote is intended to select candidates for each political party. But when each party’s total votes are tallied, they give a strong indication of which is most popular.
With some 90 per cent of ballots counted, Mr Milei had 30.5 per cent of the vote as the only candidate for the Liberty Advances party, far higher than predicted. In total, the candidates for the main conservative opposition bloc received 28 per cent of the vote while those for the ruling Peronist coalition came in at third place with 27 per cent.
Polls had predicted he would take just short of one-fifth of the vote.
‘This speaks of people’s anger with politics’
“Milei’s growth is a surprise. This speaks of people’s anger with politics,” said former conservative president Mauricio Macri as he arrived for the count.
The former singer with the band Everest, known for its Rolling Stone covers, was seen as a protest candidate with a history of making outlandish claims on chat shows.
In one instance, the climate change sceptic said he was a tantric sex instructor who could go three months without ejaculating after claiming he had various threesomes, 90 per cent of which were with two women.
Despite such boasts over his sexual prowess, Mr Milei claims to be a staunch Catholic and wants to limit abortion rights in all cases, unless the mother’s life is at risk. He blames cultural Marxism for the LGBT movement.
Mr Milei and his running mate have defended Argentina’s military dictatorship and suggested they would loosen gun laws and legalise the sale of human organs, which the congressman said the government has no business restricting.
His Trump-like rallies and strong social media presence are thought to have helped the outsider outperform expectations amid widespread disillusionment with establishment parties, especially among the young, because of the economic crisis.
“Inflation is killing us and job uncertainty doesn’t let you plan your life,” said Adriana Alonso, a 42-year-old housewife.
“The Argentine people have finally woken up,” Rebeca Di Iorio, 44, an administrative worker celebrating at Mr Milei’s election-night street party in Buenos Aires, told the New York Times.
“Argentina needs that. It needs a change.”
Sergio Massa, currently serving as the minister of economy, won the nomination for the ruling Peronist coalition as expected, and could perform more strongly in October if he can win over more moderate voters.
Turnout was under 70 per cent, the lowest for a primary election since they were first held in Argentina over a decade ago.
Whoever wins in October, or more likely in a November runoff, will have big decisions to make on rebuilding depleted foreign reserves, boosting grain exports, reining in inflation and on how to unwind a tangle of currency controls.