The new enemies of the far right in Argentina: Swifties and the BTS army

Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian economist, has been riding high on the wings of the youth vote during Argentina’s presidential campaign.

To win this month’s runoff election, he will need to hold on to that key demographic, pollsters say. But now a big hurdle stands in his way: Swifties.

A whole group of Argentinian fans of pop star Taylor Swift have become political. They have turned their online sights on Mr. Milei and his nascent Libertarian party, viewing them as a danger to Argentina, as Ms. Swift prepares to arrive in Argentina next week for the launch of her Eras Tour outside North America.

“Milei=Trump,” said a message from a group called Swifties Against Freedom Advances, the name of Mr. Milei’s party.

After Mr. Milei came second in last month’s Argentine election, sending him to the runoff on Nov. 19, a group of 10 of Ms. Swift’s Argentinian fans formed the group and issued a press release calling on other fans to stand up against Mr Milei to vote. . They said they were inspired by Ms. Swift’s previous attempts to confront right-wing politicians in the United States.

“We cannot stop fighting after seeing Taylor give everything so that the right does not win in her country,” the group said. the explanation. “As Taylor says, we have to be on the right side of history.”

The two-page missive was viewed 1.5 million times on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, before the group’s account was suspended without explanation, the group said.

The statement calls Mr. Milei’s positions against legal abortion, his support for relaxing gun laws and his proposals to overhaul public education and health care as “a danger to democracy.”

The statement also addressed Mr. Milei’s comments in which he criticized feminism, claimed there is no gender pay gap and referred to the atrocities committed by Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 as simply “excesses.”

In response, Mr. Milei has shaken off the Swifties. “I am not far right,” he told a radio station. “They can express whatever they want.” His campaign declined to comment.

Ms. Swift, who will perform the first of a series of three sold-out shows in Buenos Aires on Thursday, has not commented publicly on Argentina’s election.

The Swifties’ criticism of Mr. Milei has shifted the conversation toward his conservative social views and away from his drastic proposals to reverse Argentina’s economic crisis, including swapping the Argentine peso for the U.S. dollar and closing the central bank of the country.

But it’s not just Swifties who are organizing against Mr. Milei. He and his running mate, Victoria Villarruel, are also facing criticism from legions of loyal fans of another musical juggernaut, K-pop band BTS. They are so active and organized on the internet that they have become known as the BTS Army.

Last week, that army’s wrath was unleashed on Ms. Villarruel after a series of her tweets denigrating the K-pop group resurfaced. In 2020, she compared the name BTS to a sexually transmitted disease. She scoffed too the dyed pink And vegetable hair of some members.

Those tweets sparked such a fierce response from BTS fans, accusing her of xenophobia, that a major BTS fan club in Argentina felt compelled to try to calm their fellow fans. “The message that BTS always conveys is one of respect for yourself and all others,” said a statement from the clubwhich, according to X, has been viewed 1.9 million times.

Ms. Villarruel’s only response online to BTS’ backlash was a post calling her STD post part of “funny chats” from “a thousand years ago.”

Mr. Milei’s political base is mainly dependent on young voters. One survey among 2,400 people in October showed that almost 27 percent of his support came from people aged 17 to 25, compared to less than 9 percent for Sergio Massa, the center-left economy minister who is opposing Milei in the second round. People under the age of 29 make up 27 percent of all eligible voters in Argentina.

Many young voters say they see Mr. Milei, who wears leather jackets and wields a chainsaw at his campaign events, as the “cool” outsider candidate who has also become something of an online meme.

“The majority of people our age, from about 16 to 25, are voting for him,” said Mateo Guevara, 21, a student who attended a Milei meeting last month in Salta, a northern city. “He is a man who came from nowhere.”

It looks like Mr. Milei and Mr. Massa are heading for an exciting battle. a opinion poll published On Friday, Atlas Intel showed that Mr. Milei had a lead of four percentage points, with a margin of error of two points.

Ms. Swift has avoided politics for most of her career. But in 2018, she broke her silence by opposing Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn in Ms. Swift’s home state of Tennessee, triggering a spike in young voter registrations during that year’s U.S. midterm elections.

Ms. Swift said she felt compelled to speak out against Ms. Blackburn, who was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, because the politician’s record “dismays and frightens me,” including positions on equal pay for women, violence against women and homosexuals. rights. Mrs. Blackburn eventually won.

Ms. Swift’s song “Only the Young,” a rallying cry that describes young people as agents of change, was featured in an ad by Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, in an effort to get on the ballot in 2020.

And Mrs. Swift’s comments in a 2020 documentarysaying she had decided to publicly oppose Mr Trump despite the risk to her career, have been widely circulated in Argentina in recent weeks.

BTS fans are their own political force and most likely helped suppress turnout at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2020 by reserving seats and not showing up.

Outside the River Plate football stadium in Buenos Aires, where Ms Swift will perform next week, a contingent of Swifties are camping out to watch the show. Many said they were not keen on mixing politics with music.

“The reality of the United States is a very different reality than the one we live in here,” said Barbara Alcibiade, 22, a pastry chef. “It is true that a large percentage of fans may or may not follow certain ideals or the values ​​she represents, but that does not mean she represents everyone.”

The Swifties behind the anti-Milei news story said they never claimed to speak for Ms. Swift or any of her fans. “That’s why we were very careful not to say that Taylor wouldn’t vote for Javier Milei,” said one member, Macarena, 29, who declined to give her last name because she said the group had received online threats.

But for Macarena and her friends, the parallels between Mr. Milei and Mr. Trump are clear.

“There is no Taylor statement that you can use to say I’m going to vote for a far-right candidate,” she said.

At a K-pop dance school in Buenos Aires, BTS fans said the 2020 comments by Mr. Milei’s running mate, which discredited the group, only deepened their disgust for Mr. Milei.

“It was really disturbing because it’s always the same thing, xenophobic attacks, being treated as if they’re different,” said Marcela Toyos, 36, a teacher, after dancing to the BTS hit “Mic Drop.”

Macarena said she and her friends now have a WhatsApp group of 140 Swifties in Buenos Aires, which plans to put up posters against Mr Milei outside Ms Swift’s concerts next week. The Swifties also coordinate with smaller groups in other provinces, she said.

Ahead of Ms. Swift’s arrival, the Buenos Aires legislature voted Thursday to appoint Ms. Swift as a guest of honor. The only officials who voted against the proposal were members of Mr. Milei’s party.

Jack Nicas contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.