Javier Milei

Biography

Javier Milei was born in Buenos Aires in 1970. As a young man he played in goal for Chacarita Juniors and sang in a rock covers band before turning to economics, which he studied at the University of Belgrano. For about fifteen years he was chief economist and financial adviser at the company Corporación América, and he wrote several books on economics from an Austrian-school standpoint.

In the 2010s he became a familiar television pundit, known for combative attacks on Argentina's political class and on high public spending. He joined the Libertarian Party in 2019, and in 2021 he set up the La Libertad Avanza coalition, winning a seat in the Chamber of Deputies for the City of Buenos Aires that year.

Running for president in 2023 on a libertarian platform, he defeated Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the November run-off and took office on 10 December 2023. His government pursued deep spending cuts, deregulation and monetary restraint; official figures showed inflation falling sharply and the first fiscal surplus since 2008. La Libertad Avanza came first in the 2025 legislative elections.