Argentina’s president Javier Milei has used his speech to the World Economic Forum to slam ‘woke ideology’ and condemn Western governments and institutions as being ‘colonized’ by it.
The Argentine premier took aim at the WEF as he denounced it for promoting ‘deeply wrong’ ideas around gender ideology, feminism, climate change, mass migration and left-leaning politics in general.
He also singled out the United Kingdom in his wide-ranging speech, implying that it is ‘imprisoning citizens for revealing aberrant, truly appalling crimes committed by Muslim migrants that the government wants to hide’.
The rambling speech went on for half an hour and covered topics from the role of the European Union to terror attacks and abortion – but had one recurring theme throughout – the eradication of so-called ‘wokeism’.
The 54-year-old argued that what he called the ‘woke mind virus’ – a term he did not define – is an ‘epidemic that must be cured and the cancer that must be eradicated.’
The libertarian leader praised other leaders he sees as likeminded, such as Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.
‘Slowly an international alliance has been formed of all those nations that want to be free and that believe in the ideas of freedom,’ he said.
Turning his sights on the Davos conference which he was addressing, Milei said: ‘I must say, forums like this one have been protagonists and promoters of the sinister agenda of ‘wokeism’ that is doing so much harm to the West.’
Argentina’s President Javier Milei addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 23, 2025
He told the audience of global business and political A-listers: ‘If we want to change, if we want to truly defend the rights of citizens, we first have to start by telling them the truth.
‘And the truth is that there is something deeply wrong with the ideas that have been promoted in forums like this one.’
He said ‘the mental virus of woke ideology’ was ‘the great epidemic of our time that must be cured. It is the cancer that must be removed’.
Among other things, he hit out at what he called ‘invented’ quotas created under the guise of diversity, which he claimed undermine the ‘excellence’ of public and educational institutions.
His comments on this come after his American ally Trump made good on a campaign pledge to sever diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government and as Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta announced the end of such programmes at the company.
Milei also said ‘wokeism’ was to blame for turning migration policies from those which focused on attracting foreign talent to ones which promote mass migration – ‘not by national interest but by guilt.’
He described ‘images of hordes of immigrants abusing, raping or killing European citizens’ and declared that people did not question this for fear of being ‘branded a racist’.
Taking aim at feminist beliefs, he claimed that women are valued more than men and also labelled abortion a ‘bloody and murderous agenda’.
He hit out at the use of gender blockers in children, describing it as ‘criminal ideology’ and saying their victimhood is covered up in ‘accusations of homophobia or transphobia and other inventions.’
The libertarian leader praised other leaders he sees as likeminded, such as Donald Trump ,and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (pictured)
Karina Milei, right, the sister of Argentine President Javier Milei, attends the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025
‘In its most extreme versions gender ideology constitutes simply as child abuse,’ he argued.
‘This is what Wokeism is all about. It is the result of the inversion of Western values,’ Milei declared.
‘Each of the pillars of our civilization was changed by a distorted version of itself through the introduction of various mechanisms of cultural succession,’ he continued.
He concluded his lengthy speech by calling for the restoration of the Western values he felt had been lost.
‘Today, just like 215 years ago, Argentina has broken its chains and invites — as our anthem says — all mortals of the world to hear the sacred cry: ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’,’ Milei said.
‘May the forces of Heaven be with us. Thank you all very much and long live freedom, dammit!’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
