Carlos Maslaton He is a lawyer and market analyst. He was a councilor for the City of Buenos Aires between 1987 and 1991 (before it became autonomous) for the Unión del Centro Democrático (UCeDé), the historic liberal party founded by Álvaro Alsogaray. He was linked to other conservative parties such as Patricia Bullrich’s Unión por Todos and Alberto Rodríguez Saá’s Compromiso Federal, until he definitively turned to supporting the candidacy of javier milei to national deputy in 2021.
Rocker, Big Brother fan, married to a liberal feminist and record breaker at the World Cup in Qatar, Maslatón was willing to “massacre” Milei in a boarding school for the presidential candidacy of the libertarians, but the deputy, sister Karina and sideman Carlos Kikuchi told him to set up his own party. He does not leave La Libertad Avanza, he criticizes Macri more than Kirchnerism and is in favor of abortion, social plans and the quota for women. The craziest libertarian in the world? Or the sanest? If he wants to know, go ahead!
–Carlos Maslaton, who are you? People think you’re an economist, but you’re a lawyer.
-I am a financially inclined lawyer. I have been operating in the financial markets since the mid-1980s.
-That is your business, let’s say.
-It is one of the many.
–How are the consortium meetings in the Kavanagh with Alicia Castro, the former ambassador of Venezuela?
We get along perfectly well.
-Do you run into her in consortium meetings?
-Yeah. I even have a WhatsApp dialogue with her. The relationship is extremely cordial.
-Despite the fact that you would surely qualify her as a Trotska or a communist?
-A left-wing Peronist. No problem. I don’t know what is happening, Natalia, lately. There are many people who believe that one cannot talk to the other. Why is that?
-It seems that you care a lot about talking with different people and having a dialogue with everyone, but it doesn’t seem to be the case with Milei, right?
-No, Milei gets angry when they think differently from him.
-And yet, you are or were very close to him. If it wasn’t for them saying no, you’d be competing in an internal with them.
-No, what happens is that the thing is the other way around: my desire to compete in the internal one is as a consequence of the differences that arose. If not, I would not have competed in any internal.
-And do these differences have to do with this more “undemocratic” question, if you will?
-It has to do with this: they can’t stand anyone who has, I don’t know, 10,000 followers. Did you see that they are modern metrics? Milei and her sister couldn’t stand anyone in the movement who had a high profile.
-Is your fight for a more liberal or libertarian society, or do you want to be famous?
-No no.
-Is it a political fight or do you want to be famous?
-No, no, no, I have no interest in any fame.
-But I thought of your participation in a television program now, as permanently. Does that have to do with political struggle?
No, no, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with C5N telling me: “We want you to be a panelist.” I told them: “I can’t, I don’t have time five times a week.” I did a lot of laps. They insisted so much that I said yes.
-And what does that add to you?
-Nothing. It is a public charge.
-A public charge?
-A public charge.
-You see it as a moral obligation.
-As a moral obligation.
-You are not a cliché of the typical right-wing conservative, are you? You have atypical language for a right-wing conservative. This “barrani, massacre, bullish.” Do you appeal to a younger audience?
-I do not have anything planned or appeal to anything. You say “you appeal to a younger audience”. I didn’t look for anything. I do know that some guys are surprised by how I talk or the things I say.
-But I mean, a guy your age who talks about the lyrics of the Redondos or who goes to the World Cup and watches all the games, or what he thinks of Big Brother and who has to go out and who doesn’t. Does someone advise you there or are they your usual interests?
-Here I do have to clarify: I have high intellectual pride, I do not accept advice
-Doesn’t anyone advise you? Ladybug either?
-Ladybug can give me opinions, but I usually reject them in limine.
-Why, poor Ladybug? Because she is she a liberal feminist?
-No, I like that she is a liberal feminist. I share that ideology.
-But you demonstrated against abortion, for example, at the time.
-Yes, the other’s death affects me a lot. You know that people who are against abortion feel that this is killing someone, right? Now I wrote about it, I put that. All my friends who are liberals came, not communists, liberals like Mariquita. They told me “Maslaton, you are wrong. Do one thing: leave this in the hands of the women”. And she gave me a very strong argument. I leave it in the hands of the women.
–What would you do from a liberal perspective against gender violence?
-I am in favor of penalizing it and identifying it as such. Gender violence is serious. It is an aggravating circumstance typical of the Penal Code.
–For example, femicide? Do you agree that this is an aggravating circumstance?
-Yes Yes.
–And what would you do specifically? What public policies? How do you see that?
-The ones that are taking now.
-Do you agree?
-I agree. That implies an awareness of the problem, a message from the public powers in the sense that this cannot exist and a repression if necessary, of course. I am fully aware that although, in theory, liberal legislation in the letter of the law has always equated men with women, in practice this was not the case. The woman had fewer practical rights. So it seems to me that this 21st century wave of calling attention to it is correct, yes.
-And to make decisions, for example, of positive discrimination, quotas and others? Do you agree with those measures? Job quota…
– Temporarily yes.
– Do you have the same view in relation to the injustices of the market in other types of issues?
– The social plans?
-For example. The universal citizen income…
-I am in favor of social plans and much more in a country that was destroyed. Social plans are not Argentina’s economic problem.
-In terms of cost? Retirements yes?
-A little more, but they are unavoidable. The great problem of Argentina is the financial sector of the State, the accumulated debt.
-And what is it that brought you closer to Milei? Because, let’s see: affirmative actions, abortion, other types of interventions to correct market failures, you are in favor there in everything. Sounds like you’re closer to an egalitarian liberal or a social democracy.
-No, because the problem is that I am ultra-liberal in matters of money, credit, banks, in matters of fiscal balance, in matters of free prices, free exchange rates. All this is not in Together for Change and it is not in Front of All.
-Well, but Milei’s fiscal balance is at the expense of everything that you recently declared yourself in favor of.
-It’s the chainsaw plan. And I said that the chainsaw plan is wrong because it saves very little money compared to the waste of resources from the Central Bank or the Treasury in terms of debt. All the people who believe that the problem is the social plans and that the problem is the third electoral section of the province (La Matanza) are wrong for me.
-You proposed a general amnesty for all politicians transversally between 2003 and 2020.
-Yes, politicians, businessmen, tax evaders, everyone.
Are you still holding that? Do you think it is a good idea?
-Nobody is signing it, right? Because? Because people are terrified of signing this. The idea of this is to say “well, there have been problems here. Let’s put a limit here. Nothing is allowed from now on. What happened in the past is forgiven.”
–And what would this solve? What problem in Argentina would it solve?
-Focus on the progress of the country.
– Instead of what? The crack? Do you think the crack would close with that?
-The crack must be removed, of course, yes, yes. All the financial management of the Macri government, which was the biggest fraud that has ever existed, does not even have legal cases.
-The issue of debt?
-The embezzlement of the debt, artificially indebting a country to support the exchange rate and give it a way out…
-To the capitals.
-To those who had entered to make a temporary return. The entire loan from the Monetary Fund is an act of corruption.
VAR
–Do you regret having called Milei “jet”?
No, no, the other way around. I ratify it in this program. What happened? The change.
-The change?
-And his environment changed.
-That is, the moment in which you said “Milei must be followed, he is the leader, we obey him vertically” was it a different moment?
-He was for ideas. A year ago he stopped playing for ideas and started playing for business. They are selling applications.
Do you sell applications?
They sell applications. The places on the lists in the provinces are sold.
-Well, you have money, you could have bought a place there.
-No no. For them I am a very dangerous person.
-Because?
-Well, because of the high profile that I have.
-Because of the high profile you have. Are you competition for Milei?
-They see it that way, incorrectly.
–There are people who say that you work for Massa. Beyond the bonuses, do you work for Massa?
-No no. I speak with Massa. What does it mean to “work for Massa”?
–Well, do you have any connection, any political alliance?
-No, I have nothing.
–Why do you hit Juntos por el Cambio so much and so little to the left or the government? Isn’t it supposed that the left or the government are further ideologically from you than Together for Change? That’s weird.
-No, because Together for Change had a very bad government. Much of the evil…
-And not Kirchnerism?
-Kirchnerism had a lousy second, a lousy…
-Third government.
-Third government. But that way everything was less harmful than the Macri government. Macri’s was the worst, the second worst government in Argentine history.
-What was the first?
-The military government.
–So your optimism in relation to Argentina is genuine? Is it not that you have a political agreement with anyone?
-I operate in the market, Natalia. I don’t care who rules.
-And do you really believe that Argentina is…?
-It’s flying.
Are we in a bullish market?
-Argentina is flying, flying upwards in a huge way.
-And do you fly with people inside or with people outside?
-No, no, with people inside it flies.
-And what about inflation, unemployment, real wages?
-This price update is inevitable. In this context, what I am telling you is that income will accompany and exceed inflation.
-But the loss of purchasing power is seen, measured and has been falling.
– Do you know that I don’t believe that, Natalia? I don’t believe it.
But that’s what the data shows.
But it’s poorly displayed.
– Is the data wrong? Isn’t it true that it falls?
-The data is wrong. The data is wrong because there is a lot of Barrani income in Argentina.
-The income in black.
There is something I want to point out to you. Why is the level of activity so high in Argentina? Why is everything full?
-Because?
-Because? Because the economy is up, there is purchasing power.
-But then, in the end, you agree with Alberto Fernández when he says: “No, well, see that there are two blocks of queue to eat in the restaurants, we are very well”.
-Forgive me for telling you, but surely Alberto Fernández stole my own arguments.
–Did Alberto Fernández give you the argument that the restaurants are full?
-Yes, sure. The only one who has said that for a year and a half is me. They cannot imagine what Argentina will be like in five years. The country will not recognize it. We are entering a positive recontra cycle.
–Beyond the macro? When are we going to see him on the bus?
-No, in the macro. That in the macro.
-And when are we going to see him on the bus?
-You’re going to see it. You’re already seeing it. Get ready to see something you never imagined.
Watch the full interview.
