BUENOS AIRES: In a high-rise office in downtown Buenos Aires, a loose band of twenty-something influencers gather to plan how to propel Javier Milei to the Argentine presidency with TikTok videos, memes – and some help from Elon Musk. The group, say they are unpaid volunteers who believe in Milei’s libertarian ideas and “chainsaw” plan for the country’s hard-hit economy. They are helping drive an online battle for votes that has contributed to making Milei the frontrunner ahead of the October 22 election. On TikTok, Instagram and YouTube they share clips of Milei explaining inflation or the peso, anime-style cartoons, and viral videos of Milei, such as one where he tears down sticky notes with the names of ministries he plans to shut, angrily shouting “afuera” – out with you. “Social media is the new way of doing politics,” said Eugenia Rolon, an 21-year-old influencer with over 100,000 followers on both Instagram and TikTok.
Taking a page out of the playbooks of former US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Milei has waged a guerrilla-style campaign online against his more established political rivals. His acid-tongued diatribes and theatrical rallies are easy to edit into soundbites or viral clips. The economist and former TV pundit, who sports wild hair and leather jackets, has hit a nerve with voters angry at triple-digit inflation, rising poverty and a looming recession. That’s put him ahead of Peronist economy minister Sergio Massa and conservative ex-security minister Patricia Bullrich in opinion polls. He has also gained online fans overseas, including US news pundit Tucker Carlson, Bolsonaro, and social-media-to-Tesla magnate Elon Musk, who on X criticised Argentina‘s overspending and backed Milei’s plan for rapid cuts to spending.
Milei’s success online has sparked a fightback from Massa and Bullrich supporters, who say the libertarian’s policies are radical, impossible or even dangerous. The hashtag #JavierDelay, a play on the candidate’s surname that pokes fun at Milei’s plans as being unfeasible, recently trended on X. Massa and Bullrich both outgun Milei in terms of followers on X. But on TikTok, popular among youth, Milei has 1.4 million followers, well ahead of Massa’s 43,500 and Bullrich’s 215,000. Fernando Cerimedo, one of the masterminds behind Milei’s digital strategy, said online support for Milei was organic, “Well, I don’t have 7 million trolls, much less 7 million who vote.” Milei got just over 7 million votes in the August primary, the most for a single candidate and ahead of the overall ruling Peronist bloc and Together for Change conservative opposition. Reuters