Reflection on Milei’s victory

We thank God for the elections of 19 November, which took place in peace, without violence or complaints of corruption. Javier Milei was elected to become the next President of Argentina.

We thank the Lord for celebrating 40 years of uninterrupted democracy, exercising the right to choose our own rulers. But our longing is not to stay with the formal aspects of democracy, rather we want it to bring about deep cultural changes in our society, which are necessary for development and growth.

A change where:

1.- We recover the culture of work and effort, changing the practices of a subsidiary state that keeps people bound and dependent, generating more poverty. The culture of work and personal effort is a biblical principle inherent in the Protestant ethic.

2.- Education once again becomes the catalyst for social ascent, as it was in Calvin's Reformation, the driving force of public education. Schools, like public universities, must no longer be just an ideological banner and a place for indoctrination. They must once again become a sacred place where all our children, adolescents and young people can receive a quality education.

3.- Public hospitals are no longer used as campaign slogans but become again the most accessible places to receive quality healthcare for all citizens.

4.- Fraud, illegal business, bribery, overpricing and all those diseases that have metastasised in all areas of the provincial and/or national civil service will be eliminated and disappear as a practice. Never again resign to the Argentinian phrase: “yes, they steal, but they do things”.

5.- Republican democracy and the separation of powers may never again be questioned, nor let the voices of enlightened people who claim all power to impose their political projects be heard. Argentina must continue to be part of the concert of Western, democratic and free nations.

6.- Public security is guaranteed and crime is repressed. The theory of the legal protection of those who commit crimes must be set aside to protect ordinary citizens: those who go out to work, study, go for a walk or visit their families. Living in peace should not be an exception.

7.- The generation of goods and work, such as the increase in production, can replace populist distribution, which creates poverty and eliminates personal effort.

8.- Meritocracy must be the incentive that drives each citizen to give the best of themselves. The state must create opportunities for all and each one must take advantage of them with their best effort. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”. One cannot prosper without working, nor get a degree without studying and passing. The biblical saying “you will eat your food by the sweat of your brow” is still valid.

9.- A change where God, our Lord, cannot be left aside in the search for answers and solutions for people's lives and society. God remains necessary and indispensable.

Faith and hope, which come from the knowledge of God's good will and his plans for good and peace, must take the place of insecurity, anguish, anxiety, unease, fear and dread.

Hugo Márquez is an evangelical pastor in the city of Neuquén, Argentina.