Here are a preview of some passages from the interview.
«So good evening President, listen, I want to ask you immediately something that is not political, but something that concerns your family. Her maternal grandmother is the daughter of Italian immigrants, we are Italian, she is in Rome and it is an important visit. What do you still feel about Italianness?”.
Javier Milei: «First of all I am 75% Italian, absolutely Italian because my father’s two parents were actually Italian and on my mother’s side my mother was of Italian origin and my father of Yugoslavian origin, consequently I have 75% of Italian blood and it seems that it is quite attractive all things considered, because I have an incredible passion for Italian Opera, especially the part that refers to Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and whenever I can, for reasons of work in the sector privately, every time I had to take a trip to Europe, I did it with Alitalia because I could stop in Rome.”
Nicola Porro: «There is no more Alitalia, privatized or bankrupt I don’t know».
Javier Milei: «Okay, anyway at that time I did that, then I changed my job and stopped in Rome».
Nicola Porro: «Look, you defined yourself as a liberal and libertarian president and you say that he is unique in history. Why do you feel so unique in being liberal and libertarian?”.
«First of all because I am certainly the first libertarian liberal to be President and it is not a feeling it is a reality, a fact. Then there is another aspect which has to do with the fact that philosophically I am an anarcho capitalist and therefore I feel a profound contempt for the State. I believe that the State is the enemy, I think that the State is a criminal association.”
«Like a criminal association?».
«But absolutely yes, in fact the State is a criminal association in which a group of politicians come to an agreement and decide to use the monopoly to steal the resources of the private sector, but in fact, as Oppenheimer said, the method to be used in the market it is investment, trade and the State’s method is precisely stealing and therefore the State is not only the largest criminal association in the world but also the largest stationary thief in the world. Because what happens? The vulgar thief is random. I suggest the public think about how many times people have been attacked by a thief in recent years, once, twice, maybe, it was a disaster, maybe five times, but every time you go to buy something in a place, the State is stealing from you through taxes; therefore, the State steals from you every day. Conceptually it must be said that all this is very very strong, because there is a situation in which there is a world in which the liberal libertarian – we turn to the real world – therefore the discussion on whether we should enter politics or not are there naive people, who I could almost say are stupid, who in fact think that by doing something contrary to what the State says, they can obtain results. But the State has the power to arrest people, politicians do not see themselves affected, they do not see the powers at play. But in this I realized that the only way there was to enter the system is to dynamite the system.”
«But you are considered populist by the international press. I contest this: a populist doesn’t say “We don’t have money”. He says, on the contrary, “We will spend a lot of money, obviously”. But there is a question I want to ask you about this. Don’t you think that once you enter the Casa Rosada – you told me a little bit before – once you enter the center of power, you will have to moderate yourself? In a year, you, Milei, will no longer say “The State is the enemy”, because the State will be you.”
“No. No. I didn’t think you were insulting me.”
«No, I didn’t want to. (Laughs, ed.). Don’t get angry. The real insult for her is “communist”.
“This insult is communist.”
“But communists don’t exist anymore, Milei.”
«Oh, they don’t exist? There are many socialists who want to achieve this in the long term. They are cowardly communists. But, let’s say it another way. Look, one of the things we have done in these fifty days was to initiate and set in motion structural reforms. Of these reforms, 350 were considered urgent and 650 were included in a law, i.e. the law of the freedom of basic Argentines. And this is interesting, because the central axis of all this is that it relates to returning power and freedom to Argentines. And then there is a second point, another point: moving forward towards more competitive market structures.”
«Why is communism a disease of the soul?».
“I originally thought it was a mental problem.”
«A mental problem?».
«I originally thought so. Because pure socialism has been defeated by economic theory. I first thought it was a problem of nature, of a mental nature. But, then, I realized that it was something much worse, that it was a disease of the soul. When socialism was applied well, they murdered more than 6 million human beings.”
«You made statements in your style, very forceful, very clear, about the Holy Father who is Argentine. You met him in Rome, you also greeted each other affectionately. How did the meeting with the Holy Father go? For Italians he is obviously a very important person and also for the entire Catholic world. Are you Catholic?”.
«Yes, I am Catholic. I also practice Judaism a bit.”
«Yes, I know, I saw his transport at the Wailing Wall. But I want to ask you, with the Holy Father, that I think it is popular in Argentina…”.
«The point is this: we evolve, we understand things and one of the things that I have understood in recent times, among other things, is that the Pope is the most important Argentine person in all of Argentina, he is the leader of the Catholics in the world. Consequently, all this entails something very very important: he represents a very important institution, especially in a country like Argentina which has many Catholic roots. As a result, I had to reconsider some positions and, from that moment on, we started to build a positive bond.”