- What is the Faro Foundation?
Javier Milei returned to a field where his speech finds greater political and ideological harmony. At New Year’s Eve dinner Lighthouse FoundationIn a message addressed to a like-minded audience without any rhetorical concessions, the president combined references to the international scene, cultural definitions and a strong defense of his economic program.
From a condemnation of Islamic terrorism to praise for the recent election victory of Jose Antonio Kast in ChileThe president drew a common thread based on the notion of freedom as a core value and the need to unambiguously confront what he defined as contemporary expressions of statism and progressivism.
The meeting took place in what Milei himself interpreted as a regional political context is positive for the ideas it promotes since he came to power. The Faro Foundation’s New Year’s Eve dinner coincided with that The mood of celebration that prevailed in the ruling party after José Antonio Kast’s election victory in Chileinterpreted by the president as a sign of the regional advance of right-wing forces.
As soon as the results were known, Milei publicly celebrated the Chilean leader’s triumph, defining it as “one more step our region in defense of life, liberty and private property,” in a message that reinforced his view of the South American scenario as part of a broader ideological dispute.
In this context he presented again Reduction of government and budget adjustment are not just government policiesbut as part of a broader cultural dispute that, in his view, goes beyond Argentina and runs through the West.
In this context, Milei once again questioned the role of the state External resource manager and he presented this criticism as one of the central axes of his economic vision.
“Worst way to spend money “It’s about spending other people’s money on other people,” he said, defining the welfare state as a system that is doomed to fail because, as he said, the politician “does not feel the costs borne by the private sector” nor does he know better than citizens what their priorities are.
Based on this premise, he defended the reduction of public spending as the main government policy, asserting that his government had reduced “the consolidated budget deficit from fifteen points of GDP to zero” in addition to reducing “taxes by two and a half points of GDP”. In this sense, he confirmed that the executive maintained the adjustment course: ““We will continue on the same path, cutting spending and cutting taxes.”
The President also devoted part of his presentation to praising the Minister of Economy. Luis Caputowhom he represented as a central figure in the macroeconomic ordering process. “Thank you for being the best economics minister in history,” he said to applause before resuming his criticism of statism.
Milei claimed that one of the left’s central mistakes was “viewing the state as a god above man” and warned that in practice this apparatus was “a prey of money and power to be conquered.” In your opinion, The larger the state, the greater the incentive to waste and make bad investments.a dynamic that, according to him, was repeated in all countries where the public sector took precedence over private activities.
To illustrate this argument, he resorted to a metaphor that he used on other occasions and that he showed again to the Faro Foundation audience. He described the emergence of a hypothesis “Bridge Ministry” which, once its original function was exhausted, invented new areas and problems with the sole aim of maintaining its existence. “It’s about hiring people, amassing power and creating offices,” he said. In contrast, he emphasized that his management had reduced the state structure, emphasizing: “We have arrived and reduced the number of ministries by half.”
Milei later deepened his defense of free enterprise capitalism, connecting it to a moral discussion, not just an economic one. He acknowledged that even his critics admitted that this system was “more productive and efficient,” but noted that those on the left questioned it as unfair.
At this point, he picked up and proposed the ideas of economist Israel Kirzner A system that is unjust does not deserve to be defendedeven if it generated growth. Faced with this proposal, he reiterated that his government’s goal is to “become the freest country in the world”, emphasizing that this is not the case All instruments are valid to achieve this goal. “We don’t solve problems through utilitarian questions, we solve them through moral criteria,” he said.
This logic, he explained, had guided important decisions by his government, even in adverse circumstances. Milei remembered that at the beginning of the year Many warned him not to lift the trap. We adjusted the exchange rate because it was an election year, but assured that it would move forward when financial conditions were right. “The moral solution was to open up, to give freedom back to Argentinians, and we did it,” he explained. He claimed that too The economic program resisted months of pressure and speculative attacks, mentioning a “42 percent dollarization of M2” and a “$41 billion attack” without this destabilizing the official plan. “Look how strong the program is “That is what it is today and Argentina is growing again,” he emphasized.
At the end of this section, Milei insisted Efficiency and equity are not opposite conceptsbut complementary. He invoked the theory of dynamic efficiency to assert that “justice must not be sacrificed at the altar of efficiency” and defined the market as “a process of social cooperation in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged.”
He explained it from that perspective Free enterprise capitalism It is not only more efficient, but also “the only fair system”. “We are not just defending efficiency, we are defending a fair system,” he concluded, before highlighting his government’s economic achievements, ensuring that the economy grew again after adjustment, real wages rose and “we lifted twelve million people out of poverty”.
What is the Faro Foundation?
The Faro Foundation is one of the spaces Presidential favorites without any protocol requirements and in front of an ideologically related audience. The libertarian think tank acts as the governing party’s think tank and as a platform for the so-called “culture war”, a concept that Milei adopted as a permanent axis of his political discourse. This is not the first time that the president has participated in activities organized by the organization: he has done so before, both to talk about political economy and to publicly support the foundation’s role in the doctrinal construction of the libertarian space.
The role of Agustín Laje
The connection between Milei and the Faro Foundation was explained to a large extent by the role of its executive director Agustín Laje, one of the main intellectual references of Mileism. Laje became a central figure in crafting the government’s cultural discourse, acting as a link between the president, the universe of liberal think tanks, and the new regional right. Its importance has been consolidated since the election campaign and maintained throughout the term, in line with the official strategy of giving explicit ideological support to the economic program.
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