\n<\/p>\n
SALTA, ARGENTINA\u2014Clutching a yellow flag with a lion\u2019s head, the logo of her favorite presidential candidate, Alicia Ramos rushed to catch a glimpse of the fiery figure she hopes will transform Argentina: Javier Milei, a wild-haired, self-styled libertarian who is currently the country\u2019s presidential front-runner.<\/p>\n
Ramos, 29, was one of the hundreds of young people attending a Milei rally in the northern city of Salta, and she remembers the moment she decided to back the unconventional candidate. It was \u201cwhen he started to speak about dollarization and inflation and, above all, that the country is going to be a liberal<\/em> country,\u201d she said, referring to Milei\u2019s pledge to replace the country\u2019s currency with the US dollar and use Argentine parlance (liberal) for a more free-market economy.<\/p>\n Ramos, an evangelical, has found that Milei also shares some of her moral values, mentioning her unhappiness with legislation on gender issues<\/a> and abortion and the progressive politics of the current Peronist government of President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez and his vice president, former president Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner. The National Congress decriminalized<\/a> abortion in 2020 over strong opposition from evangelicals and Catholics in the pro-life movement; Milei has promised to make the abortion issue<\/a> a referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cNow is the time for change in the country,\u201d she said. Milei\u2019s publicly stated opposition to abortion, meanwhile, was pushing \u201cmany, many people ” in her church to vote for him, she added.<\/p>\n Despite the enthusiasm for Milei that Ramos has experienced at her church, no evangelical voters CT spoke with listed Milei\u2019s perspective on abortion as the reason they\u2019d support him. Instead, heading into Sunday\u2019s elections, the attention of evangelicals, like many of their fellow Argentines, seems focused on electing whoever they believe can best fix their economy, cut corruption, and rebuke the ruling elite.<\/p>\n Millions of Argentines are flocking to Milei, the eccentric anarcho-capitalist economist who promises radical change in the resource-rich South American country beset by recurring economic calamities.<\/p>\n In a surprise victory<\/a> in the August primary elections, Milei bested candidates from the two main coalitions: Sergio Massa with the ruling Peronist alliance known as Uni\u00f3n por la Patria and Patricia Bullrich of the conservative-leaning Juntos por el Cambio coalition.<\/p>\n Milei hopes to repeat the strong performance in the October 22 election, advancing to a runoff scheduled for November 19\u2014if not winning outright in the first round.<\/p>\n Famed for his mop of shaggy hair, thick sideburns, and vituperative speaking style, Milei cuts a controversial and unconventional figure in Argentine politics and public life.<\/p>\n For the past two decades, Argentine politics has been dominated by Peronism\u2014the political movement founded by former president Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n, who governed from 1946 to 1955 and briefly again in the 1970s. (President Mauricio Macri led the Juntos por el Cambio coalition to power in 2015 but was voted out of office four years later having failed to turn around a flailing economy.)<\/p>\n Spending soared under Peronist rule with an expansion of state services and social welfare payments, which critics decried as the formation of patronage groups, as the country recovered from a painful default in 2001. But inflation climbed\u2014then soared\u2014while the currency devalued consistently.<\/p>\n Peronism also more recently included a push toward progressive social issues such as gender ideology and an embrace of the burgeoning feminist movement\u2014which took to the streets in a movement known as the Green Wave (for the green handkerchiefs waved by supporters) to demand an end to harassment and femicides and the decriminalization of abortion.<\/p>\n Milei speaks in hyperbolic outbursts, railing against the \u201ccasta\u201d (the political caste) and capitalizing on a deep discontent with corruption in the country\u2019s political class and recurring economic crises in a country with inflation touching 138 percent<\/a> and poverty afflicting 40 percent of the population. He campaigned with a chainsaw to illustrate his seriousness in slashing spending.<\/p>\n \u201cPoliticians are going to say what they think people want to hear. Javier Milei says exactly what he\u2019s thinking,\u201d said Martha Rodr\u00edguez, a church leader and pro-life activist in suburban Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n That candor includes the abortion issue, which has drawn enormous interest as Milei identifies as libertarian. Last month, Milei explained to The Economist <\/em>how his pro-life position<\/a> could square with his stated libertarian ideals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is based on a philosophical question, which has to do with the right to life,\u201d he said. \u201cLife is a continuum that begins with the moment of fertilization and ends when you die, and any discrete leap in the middle means you died.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cFor me, abortion is qualified murder aggravated by the bond. Because it is true that the mother has the right over her body, but not over the body of the child, which is a totally different body; it has a different DNA. Therefore, you have the right over your own body, but not over the right of the unborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n But hot-button social issues seldom influence votes in Argentina, according to pastors and political analysts interviewed by Christianity Today<\/em>. How much the abortion issue influences the 2023 elections remains a matter of dispute.<\/p>\n In a poll surveying evangelical opinion conducted<\/a> several weeks ago, some 44 percent of respondents said they would vote for Milei.<\/p>\n \u201c[Abortion], basically is the issue that has most seduced evangelicals, when it comes to Milei, even more than his economic ideas and his comments about the political caste, (although this is generally one of the main reasons voters like him),\u201d said Dami\u00e1n Sileo, an evangelical journalist who oversaw the poll.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if the pro-life position is going to matter much at this time,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. She pointed to the voices she hears at a soup kitchen run by her church, which serves 400 people daily.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s going to matter is the issue of corruption,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe have a government that over the past 20 years has left us in deep poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n Other church leaders in Argentina express similar skepticism, noting evangelicals have not been politically organized\u2014unlike neighboring Brazil\u2014and Christians of all denominations have a history of supporting parties across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an argument that some evangelical candidates use to attract votes, but the truth is the people are not going to pick a politician because they\u2019re for or against abortion,\u201d said Norberto Saracco, the senior pastor of Iglesia Buenas Nuevas (Good News Church) in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously a lot of people are going to vote on the abortion issue,\u201d said Christian Hooft, director of ACIERA (Alianza Cristiana de las Iglesias Evang\u00e9licas de la Republica de Argentina or the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of the Republic of Argentina).<\/p>\n \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to take the evangelical vote,\u201d he added. \u201cPeople don\u2019t only vote on the abortion issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the main presidential candidates\u2014Massa and Bullrich\u2014met with ACIERA. Milei declined the meeting. But a person affiliated with his La Libertad Avanza movement insisted evangelicals were backing his candidacy.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a lot of Christians who are supporting Javier Milei, mainly because he\u2019s the only one really defending their interests and is not embarrassed to believe in God,\u201d said Eugenia Rol\u00f3n, an evangelical influencer and volunteer member of Milei\u2019s social media team.<\/p>\n \u201cI think any person who calls themselves Christian should support Javier Milei because he\u2019s the only candidate with a public position who cites the Bible, who is against abortion, against gender ideology, against cultural Marxism, and against the 2030 agenda<\/a>,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Many evangelicals mobilized<\/a> during the 2010s and took to the streets, waving blue handkerchiefs emblazoned with the words Salvemos las dos vidas<\/em> (\u201cLet\u2019s save two lives\u201d) as the abortion decriminalization debate entered Congress. Decriminalization was narrowly defeated in 2018, but in December 2020, the legislature approved a measure allowing abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n Since then, \u201cthe intensity of the struggle is less,\u201d Ana Valoy, a pastor and political analyst from the northern city of Tucum\u00e1n, said of the current situation. \u201cPeople have become discouraged, and it\u2019s understandable because they see progressive legislation advancing,\u201d she added. \u201c[Those of us more involved in the process] aren\u2019t discouraged; rather, we\u2019re committed to continue working.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, some observers say the evangelical vote could sway a close election\u2014something that could unfold on Sunday. Just three points separated the top three candidates in the August primary.<\/p>\n Evangelicals comprise 15.3 percent of the population, according to a 2019 study<\/a>\u2014up from 9 percent in 2008. (Argentina doesn\u2019t collect census data on religious affiliation.) However, the number of nonbelievers is swelling even faster, with nearly 19 percent of Argentines now professing no religious affiliation.<\/p>\n Milei, like many in Argentina, grew up Catholic, though he has blasted Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine, as a \u201cdisgusting leftist\u201d with \u201can affinity for murderous communists.\u201d He also criticized the pope for defending \u201csocial justice\u201d\u2014a concept commonly spoken of in Argentina, especially among Peronist supporters who point to free education and health care as national achievements.<\/p>\n Rather than Christianity, Milei has embraced Judaism in recent years and recently compared<\/a> his sister and close adviser, Karina Milei, to Moses and himself to Aaron.<\/p>\n \u201cMoses was a great leader, but he was not good at spreading the word,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then God sent Aaron to spread the word. Well, Kari is Moses and I am the one who spreads it.\u201d<\/p>\n