Could Javier Milei be elected in France? We’ll never know. But the man with the chainsaw seems to find his followers in France. After Éric Ciotti, new mayor of Nice, who said he wanted to draw inspiration from his policy (chainsaw nearby), more recently, they are David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes and presidential candidate, and Guillaume Kasbarian, former Macronist minister who claims, more or less directly, to be of the same political line.
A line that remains quite vague for many French people. Javier Milei is making noise, he is considered a “Trump of the Pampas”, his first results are controversial. But does an equivalent exist in France and would it have a chance in the 2027 presidential election?
Eliminate the State except for justice, the police and the army
For Romain Dominati, it is entirely possible. This Frenchman who lived in Argentina for seven years, always owning a hotel there, co-founded “Les Miléistes français”, a group which attempts to disseminate the policies of the Argentine president in our regions. “I think there are more and more people who are fed up and who are sensitive to our ideas,” he believes.
Ideas that need to be defined. “He’s an anarcho-capitalist, or a libertarian. He is not one of those who bury himself in books and always stays in theory. He wants to try to reduce the sphere of action of the State to its strict minimum, underlines Romain Dominati. To summarize, it is only to guarantee internal and external security. Hear: justice, the police and the army. » On the economic level, he defends “total freedom for everyone”, as well as “for morals”, all with great radicalism, in both substance and form.
An ultraliberal… and ultraconservative current
A final data contradicted by David Copello, lecturer in political science at the Catholic Institute of Paris and specialist in Latin America and Argentina contacted by 20 Minutes : “Javier Milei claims to be openly paleo-libertarianism which is an ultraconservative current on a social level. » To summarize, all questions related to gender, sexuality, abortion or immigration are totally rejected. “On moral values, Javier Milei places himself very clearly on the extreme right,” specifies David Copello.
On the economic level, “it’s ultraliberalism”. The specialist, however, separates the Argentine president’s government program from practice: “In reality, it is a little more complicated. Milei’s practice of power is a government that relies on the State, on the classic tools of politics, in the service of an ultraliberal cause. But he did not abolish the central bank or dollarize the economy as he promised, for example. » According to Romain Dominati, this is explained by a certain “pragmatism”: “He knows very well that he is not going to sink into utopia overnight. »
“A mode of government which has very authoritarian tendencies”
Above all, Javier Milei does not have a large-scale political apparatus, which forces him to make and break alliances of circumstances with the Argentinian center and right parties. A position that he shares with Emmanuel Macron. It’s not the only one, by the way. The Argentine president only governs with a very restricted circle around him and his followers, with the exception of his sister Karina and his advisor Santiago Caputo, can find themselves repudiated very quickly. He also practices “institutional Darwinism” which consists of letting those close to him tear each other apart without intervening to see who emerges victorious.
“It is still a mode of government which has very authoritarian tendencies”, comments David Copello who cites as examples the restrictions on the right to demonstrate, the cuts in labor law or the treatment reserved for opponents and journalists. In the Reporters Without Borders ranking on press freedom, Argentina tumbled from 40th to 66th place in one year of Milei governance.
Sarah Knafo or Éric Zemmour as French Milei?
Parameters which would not prevent Milei’s political line from emerging in France according to Romain Dominati. “Argentina was a country totally ossified by bureaucracy and standards. We are the most collectivist country in the world. And there are more and more people who work in particular, but also young retirees, who are fed up with paying for everything and everyone in a system that no longer works as it should. So yes, I think these ideas can be transposed to France. »
If no one in France can compare himself to Javier Milei according to Romain Dominati, he still sees some coming close “in economic terms and radicalism: David Lisnard, Guillaume Kasbarian or even Christelle Morançais”. “But the one who would come closest would probably be Sarah Knafo,” he explains.
In a style undoubtedly more sober than Javier Milei. The brutality shown by the Argentine president in both substance and form would perhaps not be accepted in the same way in France. “The average speech in Argentina is still more vulgar, more charged with emotion, more in the spectacle too. His rocker side would not come across in the same way here,” concedes the French mileist. A situation that could change as the Overton window seems to be opening ever wider in France.
However, it is a style that French politicians are trying to adopt, analyzes David Copello: “They tend to try provocation to stand out from the crowd. Lisnard with his paper shredder, Ciotti had used the image of the chainsaw, I believe that even Valérie Pécresse had spoken of cutting into budgets to the ax. We still remain on profiles that are much less “outsiders” than Milei. »
“Not sure the French would accept this”
In addition, they distinguish themselves from the Argentinian, relatively new and little-known before his election as deputy in 2021, two years before accessing the presidency, by an already rich political career. “It’s therefore difficult to play the anti-system card,” comments David Copello, “if I had to name a name all the same, I think that in terms of radicalism and political program, the closest is Éric Zemmour. »
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“Applying Milei’s program in France would have even more drastic consequences than in Argentina. The French probably do not know the reality of a Milei in power. Cuts to pensions, unemployment, Social Security, education, it would be a tidal wave in terms of economic and social transformation. Not sure the French would accept that. Argentinian society is very different. The informal employment rate [travail au noir] reaches 40%, there is a retirement system but it is still common to work until age 80 and over. The impact is therefore perceived differently than it could be in a welfare state like France. »
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