President Javier Milei of Argentina took the World Economic Forum by storm with a provocative keynote speech on Wednesday.
The libertarian leader delivered a blistering critique of socialism and a fervent endorsement of capitalist principles before a crowd of the world’s most influential political and economic figures.
Milei, having been introduced by Klaus Schwab himself, then proceeded to confront the elites with his fiery speech.
The 53-year-old president did not hold back in his rebuke of the West’s slide toward collectivism — a political theory associated with communism.
“I am here today to tell you that the West is in danger,” warned Milei.
“It is in danger because those who are supposed to defend the values of the West have been co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and, consequently, to poverty,” he added.
He lambasted Western leaders for abandoning the principles of freedom and succumbing to various forms of collectivism, including state interventionism, radical feminism, abortion, social justice movements, and population control.
“The leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. Collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world rather they are the root cause.”
WATCH:
“All that this radical feminism agenda has led to is greater state intervention to hinder the economic process, giving a job to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society.”
“Examples: ministries of work of women or international organizations devoted to promoting this agenda. Another conflict presented by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage the planet, which should be protected at all costs, even going as far as advocating for population control mechanisms or the bloody abortion agenda.”
In his scathing attack on socialism, Milei didn’t mince words: “Socialism is, always and everywhere, an impoverishing phenomenon that has failed wherever it’s been tried.”
He linked socialism to economic, social, and cultural failures and accused it of being responsible for the deaths of over a hundred million people.
In his speech, the president championed free-market capitalism as the only solution to combat poverty.