The New Enemies of Argentina’s Far Right: Swifties and the BTS Army

Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian economist, has stayed aloft in Argentina’s presidential marketing campaign on the wings of the youth vote.

To win the runoff election this month, he might want to maintain on to that key demographic, pollsters say. But now, a significant hurdle stands in his manner: Swifties.

Squadrons of Argentine followers of the pop star Taylor Swift have gotten political. They have skilled their on-line sights on Mr. Milei and his rising libertarian social gathering, framing them as a hazard to Argentina, whereas Ms. Swift herself is making ready to reach in Argentina subsequent week for the launch of her Eras Tour outdoors North America.

“Milei=Trump,” stated one publish from a gaggle known as Swifties Against Freedom Advances, which is the title of Mr. Milei’s social gathering.

After Mr. Milei positioned second in Argentina’s election final month, sending him to a runoff on Nov. 19, a gaggle of 10 Argentine followers of Ms. Swift created the group and issued a news launch calling on fellow followers to vote in opposition to Mr. Milei. They stated they have been impressed by Ms. Swift’s previous efforts to confront right-wing politicians within the United States.

“We cannot not fight after having heard and seen Taylor give everything so that the right doesn’t win in her country,” the group stated in the assertion. “As Taylor says, we have to be on the right side of history.”

The two-page missive was considered 1.5 million occasions on X, the location previously often known as Twitter, earlier than it suspended the group’s account with out clarification, the group stated.

In the assertion, it known as Mr. Milei’s positions in opposition to authorized abortion, his help for the loosening of gun legal guidelines and his proposals to overtake public schooling and public well being care as “a danger to democracy.”

The assertion additionally took goal at Mr. Milei’s feedback that criticized feminism, claimed a pay hole between women and men doesn’t exist and referred to the atrocities dedicated by Argentina’s army dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 as merely “excesses.”

Mr. Milei, in response, has shrugged off the Swifties. “I’m not the far right,” he instructed a radio station. “They can express what they want.” His marketing campaign declined to remark.

Ms. Swift, who will carry out the primary of a sequence of three sold-out exhibits in Buenos Aires on Thursday, has not commented publicly on the Argentine election.

The Swifties’ criticism of Mr. Milei has shifted the dialog to his conservative social views and away from his drastic proposals to reverse Argentina’s financial disaster, which embrace ditching the Argentine peso for the U.S. greenback and shutting the nation’s central financial institution.

But it isn’t simply Swifties who’re organizing in opposition to Mr. Milei. He and his working mate, Victoria Villarruel, are additionally contending with criticism from legions of loyal followers of one other musical juggernaut, the Ok-pop band BTS. They are so energetic and arranged on the web that they’ve change into often known as the BTS Army.

Last week, the fury of that military was unleashed upon Ms. Villarruel after a sequence of her tweets denigrating the Ok-pop group resurfaced. In 2020, she likened the title BTS to a sexually transmitted illness. She additionally mocked the dyed pink and inexperienced hair of some members.

Those tweets prompted such a fierce response from BTS followers, accusing her of xenophobia, that a big BTS fan membership in Argentina felt compelled to attempt to calm their fellow followers down. “The message that BTS always transmits is one of respect to oneself and everyone else,” stated an announcement from the membership, which has been considered 1.9 million occasions, in keeping with X.

Ms. Villarruel’s solely response on-line to the BTS blowback has been a publish during which she known as her S.T.D. publish a part of “funny chats” from “a thousand years ago.”

Mr. Milei’s political base is especially reliant on younger voters. One survey of two,400 individuals in October confirmed that almost 27 p.c of his help got here from individuals ages 17 to 25, versus lower than 9 p.c for Sergio Massa, the center-left financial system minister who opposes Mr. Milei within the runoff. People beneath 29 account for 27 p.c of all eligible voters in Argentina.

Many younger voters stated they see Mr. Milei, who has taken to sporting leather-based jackets and wielding a sequence noticed at his marketing campaign occasions, because the “cool” outsider candidate who has additionally change into a kind of on-line meme.

“The majority of people our age, from about 16 to 25, are voting for him,” stated Mateo Guevara, 21, a scholar who attended a Milei rally final month in Salta, a northern metropolis. “He is a guy that came out of nowhere.”

Mr. Milei and Mr. Massa look like headed towards an in depth contest. A ballot revealed Friday by Atlas Intel confirmed that Mr. Milei had a lead of 4 share factors, with a margin of error of two factors.

Ms. Swift shunned politics for many of her profession. But in 2018 she broke her silence to oppose the Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn in Ms. Swift’s dwelling state, Tennessee, serving to to set off a spike in young-voter registrations within the U.S. midterms that 12 months.

Ms. Swift stated she felt compelled to talk out in opposition to Ms. Blackburn, who was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, as a result of the politician’s document “appalls and terrifies me,” together with positions on equal pay for girls, violence in opposition to ladies and homosexual rights. Ms. Blackburn wound up profitable.

Ms. Swift’s tune “Only the Young,” a rallying cry that describes younger individuals as brokers of change, was featured in an advert from Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, in a push to get out the vote in 2020.

And Ms. Swift’s feedback in a 2020 documentary, during which she stated she had determined to publicly oppose Mr. Trump regardless of the chance to her profession, have been circulating extensively in Argentina in current weeks.

BTS followers are their very own political drive, having most probably helped suppress turnout at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla., in 2020 by reserving seats and never displaying up.

Outside the River Plate soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, the place Ms. Swift will carry out subsequent week, a contingent of Swifties has been tenting out to see the present. Many stated they weren’t keen to combine politics with music.

“The reality of the United States is a very different reality than the one that we are living here,” stated Barbara Alcibiade, 22, a pastry chef. “It’s true that a large percentage of fans may or may not follow certain ideals or the values that she represents, but that doesn’t mean that represents everyone.”

The Swifties behind the anti-Milei news launch stated they by no means claimed to talk for Ms. Swift or all her followers. “That’s why we were very careful not to say that Taylor wouldn’t vote for Javier Milei,” stated one member, Macarena, 29, who declined to offer her final title as a result of she stated the group had acquired threats on-line.

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

“There isn’t any Taylor statement that you can use to say that I’m going to vote for a candidate from the far right,” she stated.

At a Ok-pop dance college in Buenos Aires, BTS followers stated the 2020 feedback by Mr. Milei’s working mate disparaging the group served solely to strengthen their aversion to Mr. Milei.

“It was really upsetting because it’s always the same thing, xenophobic attacks, treating them as if they’re different,” stated Marcela Toyos, 36, a instructor, after dancing to the BTS hit “Mic Drop.”

Macarena stated she and her associates now have a WhatsApp group of 140 Swifties in Buenos Aires that’s planning to place up posters opposing Mr. Milei outdoors Ms. Swift’s concert events subsequent week. The Swifties are additionally coordinating with smaller teams in different provinces, she stated.

Ahead of Ms. Swift’s arrival, the Buenos Aires Legislature voted Thursday to call Ms. Swift a visitor of honor. The solely officers to vote in opposition to the proposal have been members of Mr. Milei’s social gathering.

Jack Nicas contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.