'Woke' global left is starting to crumble, Argentina's Milei says

A "global hegemony" of left-wing politics and ideology is "starting to crumble," Argentina's firebrand President Javier Milei told the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

"What once seemed like a global hegemony of the 'woke' left in politics, educational institutions, in the media, in supranational organizations or even in forums like Davos, has begun to crumble," right-wing leader Milei, who took office in 2023, told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

The divisive 'woke' term typically refers to supporting social justice issues and political activism.

The Argentinian politician, who casts himself in a similar vein to U.S. President Donald Trump, said he had been forming alliances with other like-minded figures and leaders.

"Over the course of this year, I have found allies in this fight for the cause of freedom in every corner of the world, from the amazing [tech billionaire] Elon Musk to that fierce Italian lady [Prime Minister] Giorgia Meloni, from [President Nayib] Bukele in El Salvador to Viktor Orban in Hungary," he said, also namedropping Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump among his allies.

"Slowly, an international alliance has been forming among all those nations who want to be free and believe in the ideas of liberty," he said.

Milei's comments typify the deep divide between global leaders on the left and right of the political spectrum, with the two camps making little effort to overcome or understand each other's ideological differences and positions in recent years.

After his inauguration on Monday, President Trump signed a slew of executive orders reversing policies instituted by his predecessor Joe Biden, such as commitments to fight climate change. Democrat Biden had done the same with Trumpian policies when he entered the White House in 2021, following the Republican's first presidency.

Milei said he had come to Davos to warn that "the battle is not yet won."

"Although hope has been rekindled, it is our moral duty and responsibility to dismantle the ideological edifice of sickly wokeism," he stated.

The Argentine president made waves at WEF last year when he called on global leaders to reject socialism and instead embrace "free enterprise capitalism" to bring an end to world poverty.

In his keynote address last year, Milei warned that "the Western world is in danger," saying "those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and thereby to poverty."

Libertarian Milei has been credited with revamping market confidence in Argentina's downtrodden economy, implementing cuts to public sector spending and energy subsidies, among his policies. Inflation has also fallen from one of the world's highest annual inflation rates of 289.4% in April to 117.8% in the year to December 2024, according to data from the country's central bank.

Critics of Milei's austerity program and bid to cut government spending nevertheless say poverty has risen during his tenure.

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