President of Argentina Javier Milei warned at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that the West must once again embrace Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Judeo-Christian values to escape “our dark present.”
Milei spoke at Davos for the third time as head of state, having delivered a scathing condemnation of socialism in his 2024 speech and a fierce rejection of woke ideology as an “epidemic that must be cured and the cancer that must be eradicated” in his 2025 speech.
The Argentine president, who once again condemned socialism throughout his speech, referred to his previous two addresses at the WEF and said that, unlike those two occasions, 2026 is the year in which he brought good news. “The world has begun to wake up, and the best proof of this is what is happening in America with the rebirth of ideas of freedom,” he stated.
Milei opened his speech by declaring, “Machiavelli is dead,” stressing that, for years, “our thinking was distorted by presenting us with a false dilemma when designing public policies, where we had to choose between political efficiency and the ethical and moral values of the West.”
“Therefore, the opposition between the dimensions of efficiency and fairness is false and erroneous. That is, what is fair cannot be inefficient, nor can what is efficient be unfair. From the perspective of dynamic analysis, fairness and efficiency are two sides of the same coin,” he said.
Milei warned that setting aside ethical and moral values leads to policies that are not only unjust, but also lead to social and economic collapse “to such an extent that it could end up destroying Western civilization itself.” He referred to his 2024 and 2025 WEF speeches, where he denounced socialist policies “elegantly packaged to deceive people of noble souls full of good intentions, but with the same catastrophic results as always.”
“Without going any further than the continuous disasters caused by socialism during the 20th century, let us look at the aberrant damage caused in Venezuela, not only by an 80% drop in its GDP, but even worse, in light of the establishment of a bloody narco-dictatorship whose terrorist tentacles spread throughout our continent,” Milei said.
He warned that, in the face of the “ethical and moral degradation” of the West caused by embracing socialist agendas, it is necessary to revive the ideas of freedom — stressing that, unlike the “utilitarian approach taken in the past,” the defense of capitalist free enterprise must be based on its ethical and moral virtues.
“Therefore, this implies that if we want to escape our dark present, we must return to drawing inspiration from Greek philosophy, embrace Roman law, and return to Judeo-Christian values, which will enable us to save the West,” Milei urged.
The Argentine president detailed that the achievements attained by his administration, such as the elimination of a 15-percent GDP fiscal deficit, lowering annual inflation from 300 to 30 percent, reducing poverty from 57 to 27 percent, and growing Argentina’s economy, were done by implementing public policies guided by ethical and moral values.
Milei emphasized that his administration’s Deregulation Ministry led by Federico Sturzenegger has carried out 13,500 reforms to the Argentine state, which has allowed Argentina to have a more efficient and dynamic economy that allows the country to grow again. In English, he said that this is “Make Argentina Great Again.” Milei pointed out that, despite popular criticism, free enterprise capitalism does not undermine moral values and reiterated his opening statement, “Machiavelli is dead. Therefore, it is time to bury him.”
The Argentine President concluded his speech by reflecting upon this week’s Jewish Torah portion, the Parshat Bo, which describes the moment when Moses confronts the Pharaoh, which Milei described as the “symbol of the oppressive power of the state,” to warn him that if he did not free the Hebrew people, the last three plagues would fall upon Egypt.
“When Pharaoh refused, the plague of locusts came, signifying famine. Then came the plague of darkness, signifying the loss of clarity for decision-making. And finally, the plague of the death of the firstborn, revealing the fate of a society that denies freedom. The analogy with what is happening today is clear,” Milei said.
“Some time ago, for some strange reason, the West began to turn its back on the ideas of freedom, which is why, in this very place in 2024, I stated that the West is in danger as a result of having embraced increasing doses of socialism in its most hypocritical form, which is wokism,” he stressed.
“In turn, in 2025, I explained the mental parasites that the left sowed in humanity. However, 2026 is the year in which I bring you good news. The world has begun to wake up. The best proof of this is what is happening in America with the rebirth of the ideas of freedom,” he continued.
“Therefore, America will be the beacon of light that will reignite the entire Western world and thereby repay its debt to civilization with expressions of gratitude to its foundations in Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Judeo-Christian values,” he concluded. “We have a better future ahead of us, but that better future will only exist if we return to the roots of the West, that is, by returning to the ideas of freedom.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
