Welcome Avatar! In another week of election lore in Argentina, Milei’s main candidate for the October midterms, José Luis Espert, was forced to step down amidst a campaign funding scandal tied to narco financing, which proved once again that Argentina is never boring. Let’s find out how we got here and what the impact could be on the outcome of the elections for La Libertad Avanza.
El Profe
José Luis Espert, aka El Profe, is a well-known libertarian economist and published author, who published several key books explaining Argentina’s economic downfall and potential solutions.
In one of his first appearances on national television in 2001 right before the main crash in that same year, he said the following:
“The future of Argentina’s growth is at stake today. If the government insists on the plan it suggested on Thursday, November 1st, not so much because of the debt default, but because the debt default is a consequence of 10 years of economic policy nonsense, but if it insists on this model of running fiscal deficits, issuing these third currencies, and shutting down the economy, I think that’s not the country that suits the Argentine people.”
His tune never changed over the years and in 2019 looking back on that clip he said:
“I say the same thing today as I did 20 years ago. The only thing that’s changed in that time is that I no longer have hair. Einstein said that the symptom of insanity is expecting different results by always doing the same thing.”
In his two bestselling books La Argentina Devorada and La Sociedad Cómplice, Espert pinpointed the exact problems that Argentina deals with on a cyclical basis and what needs to change from an economical and political perspective.
This was why, in 2019, many voters in Argentina were very exited to finally have an economist like Espert on the ballot for the presidential elections.
The expectations were low — he ended up with only 1.47% of the national vote, — but the fact that a libertarian candidate was participating under his own party was a novelty that was welcomed by many of the younger voters in the country.
Together with Milei’s increased appearances on TV, Espert’s candidacy was the start of the rise in popularity of the concepts of Austrian economics for the general public.
El Profe later joined forces with Horacio Larreta right after the 2019 elections — a move which many of his early followers condemned: Espert never had a good word for Larreta’s policies during his term as the mayor of the city of Buenos Aires.
In the 2021 midterms, Espert’s Frente Despertar was renamed Avanza Libertad, and he decided to run as national deputy for the province of Buenos Aires. It was initially planned to include Javier Milei as a candidate for the city of Buenos Aires. In this context, Espert tried to approach Macri’s Juntos por el Cambio alliance to form a “great opposition front in the Province of Buenos Aires to defeat Kirchnerism”, but, according to his testimony, the Civic Coalition and the UCR did not accept his incorporation.
This episode marked Milei’s definitive separation from Espert’s political space, who accused Vidal, Larreta and Lousteau of being socialists.
After a meeting with President Javier Milei at the Casa Rosada in January 2024, Milei made amends and welcomed Espert to the “Forces of Heaven”, alluding to his incorporation into the parliamentary ruling party.
A few months later El Profe would be appointed as the main candidate for the national midterms representing the province of Buenos Aires, which brings us to the events leading up to Espert’s resignation yesterday:
“I resigned from my candidacy for National Deputy for the Province of Buenos Aires, and President Javier Milei decided to accept it.
In these elections, Argentina has, once again, the opportunity to turn the page on its sad history. Since the President took office, he has been carrying out this change with the efforts and support of the majority of Argentines.
This is an operation clearly orchestrated by a system that destroyed Argentina for decades and sustained by a ruthless media trial against me, to which I will no longer participate.
Unlike those who, with each electoral campaign, use the same weapons, I have nothing to hide and will prove my innocence before the courts, without immunity or privileges.
Time will show that all of this was a big lie intended to sully this electoral process and thus avoid discussing what we Argentines must do to change the course of our country.
I hope that Argentines live as we deserve. That’s why I can’t allow the national project we undertook with so much effort to crumble.
To the leaders and fellow travelers of La Libertad Avanza, I say: don’t let yourselves be psychopathized. The necessary explanations will be given in due time and where appropriate. Use every second remaining until the election to explain to the Argentine people the opportunity before us, that we cannot squander our efforts, and that this is the only possible path to reclaiming the future.
Time will show that we are not all the same.”
We’ll go over the reasons why Espert had to step down from his candidacy in more depth below, and discuss the potential repercussions for the outcome of the October midterms for Milei’s party.