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Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has accused the UN of imposing a “socialist” agenda on its members and called on countries to sign up to a “freedom agenda”, in a fiery speech that cemented his status as a political provocateur beloved by the alt right.
In his debut address to the UN general assembly in New York on Tuesday, Milei focused on the 42-page “Pact for the Future” adopted by the UN on Sunday, which includes points promoting climate action, gender equality and regulation of artificial intelligence.
“Argentina will not back any policy that implies the restriction of individual freedoms or trade, nor the violation of the natural rights of individuals,” Milei said. “We invite all nations of the free world to join us, not only in opposing this pact, but in the creation of a new agenda for this noble institution: the freedom agenda.”
He added that the UN’s previous 2030 sustainable development agenda was “a supranational programme of a socialist nature” and accused the UN of becoming “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live”.
Milei has courted the global spotlight since taking office in December, speaking regularly at multilateral summits and conservative political conferences and forming friendships with prominent figures such as Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, whom Milei met with for the third time on Monday in New York City.
“My companies are actively looking for ways to invest in and support Argentina,” Musk said in a post on his X platform on Tuesday.
Earlier this month in an interview with broadcaster LN+ Milei referred to himself as “one of the most relevant politicians on planet earth. One is Donald Trump and the other is me.”
Milei’s domestic agenda has largely focused on fixing Argentina’s worst economic crisis in two decades, mainly by rolling out a severe austerity package designed to bring down triple-digit inflation.
But the libertarian economist, who has denied the existence of human-caused climate change and is a staunch opponent of Argentina’s legalisation of elective abortion, has also pledged to wage a “cultural battle” against Argentina’s left.
He has dissolved Argentina’s women’s and environment ministries and shut down its anti-discrimination institute.
“I’m here to warn you that we are at the end of a cycle,” Milei said at the UN on Tuesday. “The collectivism and moral posturing of the woke agenda have collided with reality.”