How Argentina’s new president takes advice from his cloned dogs

Argentina’s new right-wing president Javier Milei has claimed to have the best strategists in the world. No, he isn’t talking about people. Milei is referring to his five dogs – all clones of his original pooch – whom he calls his “four-legged children” and claims are his advisors on a host of issues. But who is the 53-year-old Milei? And what do we know about his dogs? Let’s take a closer look: Who is Milei? Milei was born in Buenos Aires to a middle-class family with whom he admits a “complicated” relationship. He is very close to his sister Karina, however. The libertarian’s rock-star persona is no pose – he played in a Rolling Stones cover band in his youth and was also a keen footballer. Milei began appearing on television shows in 2015, where his red-faced rants against the government gained traction on social media. His party Libertad Avanza was only formed before 2021 elections when he became a lawmaker for Buenos Aires. The 53-year-old economist with a rock-star persona blindsided experts when he first emerged as a serious contender by winning an August primary election with 30 percent. While described alternately as libertarian, far right, or anti-establishment, Milei’s political views are hard to pin down.

He describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” who is “above all for freedom.”

He is opposed to abortion and sex education, does not believe humans are responsible for climate change, and thinks human organs should be sold freely. As per The Times UK, a biography of Milei entitled El Loco (The Madman) was published in July. After he placed second behind his rival Massa in the first-round vote, and allied with the center-right opposition, he toned down much of his more divisive rhetoric. [caption id=“attachment_13405642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Javier Milei describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” who is “above all for freedom.” Reuters[/caption] This includes insulting Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine, and vowing to ditch or privatize key government ministries. His famed chainsaw – a symbol of cuts he wanted to make to public spending – was nowhere to be seen. Milei has since said his dollarisation program would be incremental, but he insists he will shut the central bank and end the “cancer of inflation.” “Long live freedom, damn it!” was his rallying cry throughout a campaign in which he railed against a “thieving and corrupt political class,” notably on TikTok and YouTube where he fired up the youth. He has vowed to ditch the ailing peso for the US dollar, “dynamite” the central bank, and slash public spending. What do we know about his dogs? Milei is known for his love of dogs, and owns four large mastiffs named after liberal economists. As per The New York Times, his dogs are named after economists Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas. According to “Madman,” the unauthorised biography from journalist Juan Luis Gonzalez, Milei never accepted the death of his first dog, Conan, and all his other pooches are clones he had made in the United States.

Conan was named after the movie Conan The Barbarian.

Gonzalez, the journalist and biographer, said that when the original Conan had been alive Milei would give him champagne and treat him like part of the family. “For Milei, Conan was like a son,” he said. Milei has claimed that the dog, with whom he spent many Christmases, saved him, as per The New York Times. Milei initially sent the dog’s DNA sample to animal cloning firm PerPETuate, which has written publicly about cloning Milei’s dogs on its company website. As per the newspaper Conan’s clones were created at a New York lab. The owner of PerPETuate, 75-year-old Ron Gillespie, 75, said Milei first reached out to him in 2014. “He said that this dog was his life,” Gillespie told the newspaper. Milei then gave Gillespie $1,200 and a sample of Conan’s tissue. Gonzalez claims that Conan, through a medium gave Milei the mission of becoming Argentina’s president. The La Nacion newspaper reported that Milei thinks he met Conan in a previous birth more than 2,000 years ago. Milei thinks that he was a gladiator and Conan a lion at the Roman Colosseum. However, the pair did not do battle as they would unite one day — in 2023. In 2018, after Conan passed away, Milei gave Gillespie the go-ahead to make the clones. [caption id=“attachment_13407572” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Javier Milei’s original dog Conan and three of its clones. Image courtesy: PerPETuate.net[/caption] “He was ecstatic,” Gillespie told the newspaper after the dogs arrived – one of whom seemed to respond to Conan and even seemingly enjoy the same TV show as the previous dog. Conan “is literally a son to me,” Milei previously told a website. He calls the other clones “my grandchildren.” Milei has used a medium to talk to his dogs and called them the “best strategists in the world” at his closing campaign. “Do you know who were the only ones always by my side?” Milei said in an August interview with Argentine media, referring to a tough period in his life. “My sister and Conan.”

When asked about being dubbed crazy, he says: “The difference between a genius and a madman is success.”

As Milei’s political profile has soared, his dogs have become a point of criticism. Gonzalez, Millei’s biographer, told website 20minutos, Milei “is convinced that the dogs advise him in different areas: one in politics, another in economics, another gives him general advice.” “This man who would command the fate of the country wakes up each day, does medium sessions with the dogs, and then makes a decree based on that. It’s very shocking,” Gonzalez added. Sergio Massa, his now former opponent, had slammed Milei for “talking about his dogs as if they were children.” But Milei responded to the pup-related criticism in a TV interview saying. “They can say what they want. Everyone gives their opinion,” he said. Newspaper El Pais quoted Milei as saying, “What I do inside my house is my problem_.”_ The Economist quoted Milei as saying, “What is it they say, that my dogs determine my strategies, yes? That they are like a strategic committee? They are the best strategic committee in the world. Tell me: when has an outsider-outsider achieved what we achieved in two years? If so, they are the best political analysts in the world.” Unmarried and childless, Milei has recently been dating actress and comedian Fatima Florez. ‘Anarcho-capitalist’ Most analysts are stumped as to what he will actually do next, saying most of his proposals are unlikely given his lack of power on Congress, even with his allies. Political analyst Virginia Oliveros, speaking during an online webinar on the election, said that if Milei won, the transition would be “absolute chaos.” “He has no team, no plan. It’s not clear what he’s going to do. I think that people are not going to have any patience with him, that the honeymoon is not going to last 15 minutes.” His anti-establishment rants, pro-gun stance and abrasive style have seen comparisons drawn between him and former US president Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. However unlike those two leaders, “Milei came from nowhere… and his popularity came from the disaster of the bad performance of the economy in the last 12 years,” said economist Andres Borenstein, with the Econviews think-tank. While there are those who are fervent supporters, many who backed him were merely expressing disgust with the long-dominant Peronist coalition and its inability to halt Argentina’s cycle of deficit, borrowing, money-printing and inflation. “They’re not right-wing people, they are angry people and disenchanted people,” Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington said of Milei’s voters. “This kind of anti-incumbent sentiment has really been everywhere… it’s really just been remarkable that Argentina has managed to avoid it until now,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Argentina Project at the Washington-based Wilson Center think-tank. “This is a triumph that is less due to Milei and his peculiarities and particularities and more to the demand for change,” said Lucas Romero, the head of Synopsis, a local political consulting firm. “What is being expressed at the polls is the weariness, the fatigue, the protest vote of the majority of Argentines.” “There were lot of voters that weren’t convinced to vote Milei, who would vote null or blank. But come the day of the vote, they voted for Milei because they’re all pissed off,” Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel, said by phone. “Everyone talked about the fear of Milei winning. I think this was a fear of Massa winning and economy continuing the way it is, inflation and all that.”

“What exists now doesn’t work for me,” said Milei supporter Matias Esoukourian, a 19-year-old economics student.

The vote took place amid Milei’s allegations of possible electoral fraud, reminiscent of those from Trump and former far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Without providing evidence, Milei claimed that the first round of the presidential election was plagued by irregularities that affected the result. Experts say such irregularities cannot swing an election, and that his assertions were partly aimed at firing up his base and motivating his supporters to become monitors of voting stations. Many have expressed concerns they undermine democratic norms. Both Bolsonaro and Trump congratulated Milei on social media. “The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social. “You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!” With inputs from agencies