President Javier Milei will present his new book at Buenos Aires’ Luna Park stadium Wednesday evening — and he plans to make good on his rockstar image by singing at the event.
“At Luna Park stadium, the president will present his latest book, Capitalism, Socialism, and the Neoclassical Trap,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Monday. In the first part of the event, the president will speak about the book, flanked by Adorni and libertarian Deputy José Luis Espert.
Then, “President Milei will participate in a show where he himself will sing and he himself will be, as it were, the relevant figure,” Adorni said.
The event is at 8 p.m. Tickets are being distributed for free in Plaza Roma, next to Luna Park, and long queues formed hours ahead of the event.
Milei fans waited for the libertarian leader with a percussion ensemble and flag spread across the street reading “Milei president,” while a street seller sold t-shirts with the legend “I choose to believe.”
“I think the country needed to change,” Gastón Pereyra, a 14-year-old high school student waiting for his idol alongside his mother, told the Herald. “Everything is good for now, inflation is going down and such.” With his hair slicked back with gel, wearing a tie and newly polished shoes, Pereyra told the Herald that Milei singing in Argentina’s rocky economic context and diplomatic crisis with Spain was not a sign of disrespect.
“While the country is not going through the best of times, Milei has always been that way in his actions,” he said. “Now he has a more important job, which is to be president, but he is still Milei.”
Published on May 1, Capitalism, Socialism, and the Neoclassical Trap is a 376-page volume from the publishing house Planeta. Its subheading is “From economic theory to political action.”
Milei has written several books about economics. Many focus on critiquing Keynesian economics, promoting the Austrian school of economics, and criticizing Argentine economic policy. He has been accused of plagiarism in his 2020 book Pandenomics and in pieces written for various Argentine news publications.
An investigation published by Noticias magazine alleges that the president plagiarized material in Capitalism, Socialism and the Neoclassical Trap. He is accused of copying material from a researcher with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, a United States website, and two Chilean economists. “There are dozens of plagiarized paragraphs,” said Juan Luis González, author of the unauthorized Milei biography El Loco (“The Madman”), who has investigated plagiarism allegations against the president. “When we say plagiarism, we mean Ctrl C + Ctrl V without attributing the quote. Plagiarism is a crime in the [Argentine] Criminal Code.”
Adorni denied that there was plagiarism in Milei’s latest book on Tuesday. “There is no plagiarism of any kind,” he said during a press conference. “Everything is within intellectual property law.” He did not address the specific examples of alleged plagiarism that journalists have highlighted.
While Wednesday’s event may be Milei’s first stadium gig, he’s no stranger to singing in public. The 53-year-old sang in a Rolling Stones cover band called Everest. Footage of him singing karaoke has gone viral in the past. He often takes the stage at rallies singing Hola todos, yo soy el león (Hello everyone, I am the lion) — the opening lines of a song by the Argentine punk band, La Renga. The band has previously rejected his use of their work.
Critics have accused Milei of using the unusual show to distract from the ongoing diplomatic spat between Argentina and Spain and other political and economic challenges.
Milei was scheduled to present his book at the Buenos Aires Book Fair on May 12. However, he canceled the presentation, claiming that there were plans to “sabotage” the event.
“There is a level of hostility towards me and our staff that leads us to suspect there is an attempt to sabotage the presentation. And to do so the way Kirchnerism does, in a violent way,” Milei told El Observador radio station at the time.