As a result of the match with the English, the Falklands flag, and the anti-Argentina campaign, the issue of national sovereignty and the defense of the Homeland has once again been brought to the forefront. This is a recurring discussion that I personally consider crucial for the future of the country, featuring two opposing worldviews as protagonists.
On one hand, there is a self-proclaimed "national and popular" camp that has unilaterally claimed exclusive representation of Argentine identity, wielding accusations against anyone who dares to question their orthodoxy. They consider themselves, without further ado, guardians of sovereignty against the constant advances of foreign imperialism.
On the other hand, we have the liberal government of Javier Milei. A government that, while it has expressed patriotic sentiments, does not base its message on declarations typical of an exacerbated nationalism, advocating for trade openness and integration with the rest of the world. For the former, this is seen as "selling out the country," as treasonous, and as "cipayo."
The balance of so-called "popular nationalism"
Therefore, it is not a bad idea to review what each side has done. While the country was under "nationalist" control, in all matters related to defending national interest, they did nothing less than create a disaster. To give just a few examples:
They destroyed the currency through inflation, to the point that foreigners mocked us by tearing thousand-peso bills in our faces at soccer matches.
They bankrupted the country, leaving child poverty at 70%, causing the greatest aspiration of any student to be to emigrate in search of a better future, while those who could not do so had to resign themselves to poverty.
They focused on bankrupting our most competitive sectors globally to benefit a select group of friends with regulations.
They opened the borders to illegal immigration, and the country filled with criminals and foreigners who enjoy services paid for by the work of Argentines without charge.
They underfunded and demonized the Armed Forces, leaving us defenseless against external threats.
In foreign policy, they allied with dictatorships and tyrannies of all kinds, tarnishing our reputation and seriously harming our sovereign claim over the Islands.
They conceded national territory to sovereign states like China.
On the other hand, they also failed to defend national interest against international organizations. They imported the foreign ideological agenda on gender without question, and during the dark times of the COVID-19 pandemic, they turned the country into the best student of the World Health Organization, imposing the strictest quarantine in obedience to fraudulent guidelines that unnecessarily multiplied the number of deaths.
When the Homeland is confused with the State
Therefore, what they did for the nation is difficult to decipher until one realizes where they truly put all their energy: to promote the expansion of the State. If there is one thing we must acknowledge, it is that they have always been very meticulous in leaving a larger public apparatus than the one they received.
For them, the Homeland is the State, the State is the Homeland, and everything else must be sacrificed to that premise. Thus, sovereignty is measured in terms of the powers of the State: whoever shrinks the public sector attacks sovereignty, and whoever promotes its expansion protects it. Viewed from this perspective, everything makes perfect sense.
Now, in everything that literally means defending the national interest, the national government is successfully correcting the catastrophe of that sham nationalism. It is ending inflation, positioning the Argentine peso among the currencies with the highest global appreciation, which means nothing less than safeguarding the value of the national denominator and therefore the money of all Argentines. Child poverty has been reduced to 42%, which the nationalist lovers of the poor left almost thirty points higher. As they say, they love the poor so much that they create thousands of new poor as long as they are in power.
Moreover, they have strengthened border controls and tightened immigration policy through new security programs, increased controls against terrorism, and issued a decree to prohibit the entry or expel foreigners who have uttered messages of hate against the Argentine Republic. The Armed Forces are being equipped, in addition to being recognized by a government that acknowledges their fundamental role in defending what we hold most dear.
There is no area in which President Milei's government has not enhanced the national interest, especially taking into account what was inherited. However, simultaneously, it has greatly reduced the size of the State, doing more with fewer resources. The diametrical opposite of the "national and popular" camp.
Land, foreigners, and the new debate on sovereignty
Now, those who destroyed the country have once again intensified their rhetoric with their various epithets regarding the Bill on the Inviolability of Private Property and the proposed amendment to the Land Law, as well as regarding the charging of fees for services to foreigners.
We are talking about politicians who allowed five million immigrants, both legal and illegal, to enter, who use health and educational services of the highest quality that the public sector has to offer, and for free. From high-complexity surgical interventions to complete university degrees. Services that do not even remotely cover the VAT as some have argued. A situation around which entire businesses have been built, where everyone profits except the Argentine people who pay for the party.
To the "national and popular" camp, none of this seems scandalous. In fact, they have always done everything possible to promote it in the name of absurd ideological convictions. However, they do raise a cry when the national government wants to end the ridiculous prohibitions that prevent the arrival of foreign investments that want to do business and create jobs in the country. The reform to the Land Law, for example, did not cede a single square meter of sovereignty. The territory remained and would always remain under the jurisdiction of Argentine law, in addition to being revalued, generating the possibility of better ventures, more investment, and more jobs for our citizens.
True patriotism is measured in results
For this reason, and behind all the pantomime of meaningless adjectives, we are fundamentally talking about what is best for Argentines: speeches loaded with false patriotic emotionality that translate into a majority impoverished while sustaining the privileges of a few, or measures that truly improve the standard of living of the people.
Or do they want us to believe that defending national sovereignty is about protecting the schemes of some businessmen and politicians? We know this is not true. We know that defending sovereignty is cultivating the nation, allowing freedom to flourish in every corner of our land, and having a strong and thriving economy, with Armed Forces prepared to defend our borders.
They have very cleverly managed to confuse public opinion by equating national interest with their own, but that has come to an end. Little by little, the veil is being lifted: Argentines are realizing that those who most loudly proclaim patriotism have done more for themselves than for the country, and that true patriotism is what the President proposes with the ideas of freedom in hand.
There is no other path to national greatness than living in freedom.
