2023-12-31 00:50:33
The defenders of the new government of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) highlight that Milei was elected president by the majority of Argentines and that for this reason “Milei is not the dictatorship” as a few detractors of the libertarian proclaim. And what LLA defenders maintain is true, Milei was elected in the second round of elections with 55.65% of the votes in elections recognized by the entire political spectrum as free and transparent. At the same time, the use of force to repress those dissatisfied with the new government is not observed; Yes, we were able to witness operations, for many exaggerated, at the time of having to deactivate two protest marches that did not mobilize the number of people that would justify a deployment of more than 1,000 troops or for the president to move to the federal police monitoring center. But, for many, this exaggeration does not mean at all that there were security forces repressing people like in the dark times that we Argentines lived through. At the same time, Milei is angry with the nation’s Congress because he wants his mega DNU and his mega omnibus bill to be approved without a word, but Congress is still standing. Likewise, the nation’s Judicial Branch is functioning as it was before Milei, within a framework of democratic legality. For their part, many journalists and panelists in the media criticize the new government, and they are not intimidated, but can question freely. For all these reasons, Milei is not the dictatorship.
The question that should be asked following this argument is whether Milei is a faithful representative of democracy, and in particular of the democracy that protects our National Constitution, which he defends with such vigor in his speeches when he claims to return to the time of Alberdi. . Our Magna Carta states that our form of government is representative, republican and federal, and regarding the representative nature it says verbatim in its article 22: “the people do not deliberate or govern, but through their representatives and authorities created by this Constitution…” . In relation to the republican character, the Constitution establishes the division of powers: the Legislative that sanctions the laws, the Executive that executes them and the Judicial that interprets and enforces them. The federal system allows the coexistence of provincial governments, at the same time as a federal government that has a series of prerogatives over the entire national territory.
In the general elections of October 22, the vote was taken for president and legislators, deputies and senators of the nation were voted. And legislators were voted, because, constitutionally, as mentioned, there is a division of powers, and one of these three powers is the Legislative. For this reason, according to excellent constitutionalists who never showed antipathy towards the new president, the Milei government with its claims to have a DNU approved in record time with 366 reform measures and a bill containing 664 articles, in a regime Republican, there is no place. It should be noted that Milei declared a public emergency until December 2025 with the possibility of an extension for two more years, that is, this mega DNU and this mega omnibus law imply granting more than 1,000 extraordinary powers to the president for his entire government administration. .
Milei might have sent to Congress several DNUs and the more than 600 articles of the omnibus law segmented into smaller and decipherable groups in a short time, so that, as he intends, a mega number of measures are quickly approved in a context of worrying macro and socioeconomic crisis.
Milei rants once morest collectivism and with rational arguments, however, when governing he finds himself emulating more of a Rousseau type of government, where “the general will” rules, the will that voted for him, which is perhaps why his first speech When he took office, he did so with his back to Congress and facing the citizens who elected him, and he tells us that he will call a plebiscite if they reject the mega DNU. And Milei, who venerates, also with rational arguments, liberalism, collides head-on with the ideas of, for example, John Locke, who advocates a type of representative democracy, or with those of Tocqueville or Mill, who in their writings convey to us their fear of “ the tyranny of the majorities” that can lead to ignoring the opinions and decisions of minorities, of those who are opposition to a government in office.
In conclusion, Milei won the election and 55.65% of the population supported him, but Milei governs for 100% of Argentines, and almost 100% of Argentines registered on the electoral roll went to vote for a president and legislators. , and in Argentina according to the Constitution that Milei defends, there is no type of direct democracy, therefore it cannot be governed through popular consultations, and there is a republican type government therefore it cannot be governed by turning its back on the Congress but by agreeing with it on the forms and contents to govern. If Milei follows the liberal ideology, he will be able to govern appropriately in the Argentine Republic, a republic that is tired of collectivism, which in the discursive sense he seems to question so much.
* Sandra Choroszczucha – Political scientist and professor at the UBA.
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