Javier Milei’s positions have caused a lot of ink to flow. Elected this November 20 with 55.95% of the vote, the new ultraliberal president of Argentina is opposed to abortion and climate skeptic. He proposes abolishing the central bank and replacing the peso with the dollar. He wants to privatize public companies and reduce the number of ministries to the bare minimum.
But one of his proposals went almost unnoticed. While he was only a candidate in the campaign, Javier Milei affirmed that “the sovereignty of Argentina over the Falkland Islands is not negotiable”. A position that may seem extravagant, but which is rather classic and consensual in Argentina.
Made up of two main islands and more than 750 smaller islands over an area of 12,000 km2, the Falklands archipelago – “Falklands Islands” for English speakers – has around 3,000 inhabitants. In 1833, British settlers expelled the Argentine settlers and established the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
In April 1982, the ruling military junta attempted to take control by force and declared war on the United Kingdom. Margaret Thatcher’s reaction is worthy of the nickname “Iron Lady”: the British fleet is sent to the other side of the Atlantic. At the end of a three-month war, which resulted in 649 deaths on the Argentine side and 258 on the British side (including three islanders), the Argentine army was defeated.
Also read More than a century ago, when Argentina was as rich as Switzerland
Since then, Argentine heads of state have always contested British sovereignty over the archipelago, from the radical Raúl Alfonsin (1983-1989) to Alberto Fernandez (2019-2023), including the Peronist Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015). In 2012, thirty years after the war, the Argentine parliament insisted on reaffirming its claims to the archipelago through the Ushuaïa Declaration. In reality, Javier Milei took up a classic diplomatic position as a campaign proposal.
“There is a national consensus on this question, because the Falklands War is an Argentinian trauma,” explains Christophe Ventura, specialist in Latin America and director of research at IRIS, the Institute of International and Strategic Relations. “All political leaders are on this line, that goes without saying, it’s a marker of identity,” continues the researcher, “it’s a bit like supporting the football team.”
Last September, in the middle of the presidential campaign, he declared on a television set that “Argentina’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands is not negotiable. The Falklands are Argentinian. (…) Now we have to see how we are going to get them back. It is clear that the option of war is not a solution.” In another television interview, he asserts: “We had a war – which we lost – and now we must do everything possible to get the islands back diplomatically.”
Also readFalklands War: 40 years ago, the surprise landing of Argentine soldiers
Concretely, Javier Milei proposes to negotiate with the United Kingdom a solution comparable to that of Hong Kong: a British colony from 1841, the territory was returned to China in 1997. The Argentine president admits that it is also necessary to take into account the opinions of those who live on these islands, which “cannot be ignored”.
However, in 2013, 99.8% of the 3,000 Malouins voted in a referendum to retain their status as a British Overseas Territory. “The Falkland Islands are British. It is non-negotiable and undeniable, Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps warned on X (ex-Twitter), 99.8% (Sic.) of the islanders voted to remain British and we will always defend their right to self-determination and sovereignty of the United Kingdom.” The British government regularly reaffirms that no negotiations are possible on the issue.