Javier Milei’s vision of the Falkland is clear-cut
The political sequence that brought Javier Milei to the helm of Argentina was not without its daring positions. Among them, a geopolitical vision of the Falkland Islands that offers a more important path for the archipelago’s inhabitants and favors long-term negotiation over confrontation with the British.
Yesterday, Javier Milei was officially sworn in as Argentina’s new president, taking an oath to his country, and on Argentina’s gospel and constitution: “I swear”. This access to power caused quite a stir. Notably in terms of international politics, around the historic dispute between the UK and Argentina over sovereignty of the Falklands Islands.
During his campaign, Javier Milei went so far as to transgress the political line hitherto held by previous presidents of the relationship between Argentina and the Falklands. The memory of the traumatic three-month war of 1982, which claimed the lives of over 600 Argentinians and more than 200 Britons. Despite the defeat of their attempted invasion, the memory of the war heroes anchors the Falklands in the Argentine national narrative, defining it as a lost territory to be reclaimed. For its part, the UK has allocated £2.4 billion over the past 40 years for surveillance missions around the archipelago.
However, as early as April of this year, El Cronista wrote the reported words of the candidate: “Argentina has made all the mistakes necessary to make the situation totally confused. […] The country has not created the conditions for the Falkland Islanders to want to be Argentinians. […] If you want them to be part of Argentina again one day, it’s going to involve a very, very long negotiation. And Argentina will have to be able to offer something interesting. Argentina is not an interesting country if its own citizens leave the country. So you want to ruin the lives of the islanders?”
Although still not the favorite in the polls, he maintained this stance on the Falklands throughout his campaign, beating off the opinions of his rivals by citing Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister during the Falklands War, among the political figures who inspired him. It is in line with Thatcher’s vision of combining a liberal economic program with a social austerity program. His discourse is perhaps more concerned with economic interests than with national remembrance.
The Falklands Veterans Centre has repeatedly protested, as in Telam in November: “Milei refers to those who, since 1833, have illegally usurped part of our territory, and idolizes Margaret Thatcher, responsible for the deaths of 634 soldiers and an enemy of Argentines. Are the Argentines who inhabit this land of immense resources prepared to give the opportunity, through the universal vote, to those who, with old patterns of political colonization and a culture of surrender, are turning Argentina into a non-country?”, said the Falklands Veterans Centre in La Plata.
Gustavo Melella, governor of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, was quick to point out that the objective of reclaiming the Falklands for the Argentine people was enshrined in the 1994 Constitution, denouncing “the immobility and naivety of pleasing the British by thinking that at some point they will decide to sit down and negotiate the fundamental solution to the dispute.”
Javier Milei presented the return of the Falklands to Argentina as a long negotiation process comparable to that of Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. This did not interest Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, telling the press after a telephone conversation at the end of November with Javier Milei: “This issue is closed and was resolved a long time ago.” However, Javier Milei and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron agreed on one point during the meeting: music and the Rolling Stones.
Camille Lin, PolarJournal
