Kloten, January 24, 2025 – The Liberal Institute has awarded this year’s Röpke Prize for Civil Society to Javier Milei for his pioneering role in the fight against the sprawling state. The Argentine President accepted the prize in front of around 600 participants at the Congress Center in Kloten and spoke about the Argentine economic miracle, his reform plans and parallels with Wilhelm Röpke.
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On January 24, 2025, the Liberal Institute awarded the Röpke Prize for Civil Society 2025 to Argentinian President Javier Milei for his international role model role in combating the sprawling state on the occasion of the traditional celebration of freedom.
There is probably no other politician in the world at present who is driving forward liberal reforms with such consistency and courage. According to Javier Milei, he gained his basic convictions from a number of outstanding thinkers of the Austrian School – an economic school of thought that is mainly cultivated and disseminated in Switzerland by the Liberal Institute. It is about the conviction that every person has non-negotiable individual rights that protect them from attacks on life, limb and property.
The Argentinian miracle should be contagious
He wished there were more Wilhelm Röpkes who stood up for what was right against repressive state power, said Javier Milei after accepting the Röpke Prize. He admires the German economist and recognizes some parallels, without wanting to put himself on the same level as Röpke. Like Röpke, he had suffered under socialist politics in his youth. Like Röpke in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, Milei was motivated by inflation as a young Argentinian footballer to dedicate his life to economics. Like Röpke, he had to ignore the warnings of his professors and study works that they had condemned. What the German economic miracle was for Röpke, the Argentinian economic miracle is today – with the same recipes: fiscal discipline and monetary strictness. Politicians must show respect for citizens’ money and not rob them by creating money as if printing banknotes meant prosperity.
At the beginning of his term of office, the Argentinian economy was crushed by regulation. The country, which used to be a global example of everything that should not be done, is now viewed with favor by citizens and investors from abroad. With the largest austerity program in history, Argentina has managed to reduce inflation, regulation and poverty within a year. “I hope that this miracle will infect the whole world,” said Milei.
In addition to the reforms already implemented, there are 3200 more that will ultimately make Argentina the freest country. These include giving Argentinians the choice of currency in everyday transactions, closing the central bank, reducing national taxes by 90 percent and returning fiscal sovereignty to the provinces in order to create a federalist system similar to Switzerland.
Setting new standards in politics
In his laudatory speech, LI President Daniel Eisele pointed out that Javier Milei’s impressive successes illustrated the great appeal of liberal ideas. For Javier Milei not only stood in the tradition of great liberal thinkers such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich August von Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, but also contributed to the dissemination of these important ideas like no other well-known politician.
Only liberalism makes peaceful and humane coexistence possible because it is based on freedom, individuality, personal responsibility and independence and thus embodies the antithesis of oppression, restriction, command and obedience. The market economy is the economic system that rewards serving people and fulfilling the needs of others. Javier Milei also stands in this humanist tradition, emphasizing the power of the consumer rather than the power of the state-controlled economy. In the spirit of liberalism, he believes in the individual rights of citizens, which must be defended against encroachment by the state.
Consistency instead of ingratiation
In his introduction, LI Director Olivier Kessler compared Javier Milei’s success with that of Roger Federer. Whereas it used to be common for people to end their sporting careers in their early 30s, Roger Federer has pushed the boundaries of what is conceivable by remaining at the top even at an advanced age. Just as Roger Federer shifted the standards in the world of sport, Javier Milei has now succeeded in doing the same in the world of politics. Just over a year ago, it was considered completely impossible for a consistent liberal to win a presidential election in a large country, but he has proven the opposite. Javier Milei has shown that liberals do not need to carry and spread the virus of statism, interventionism and dirigisme in order to have a chance of winning elections and shaping politics. On the contrary, pandering to statists of all kinds has led to the decline of so-called “liberal parties” in the West.
It has been shown that a fundamental return to the principles of the market economy, the essential value of private property and the morally superior ethics of liberalism are precisely what is needed to turn citizens, and young people in particular, back into committed standard-bearers for the cause of freedom. Around 70 percent of those under the age of 24 voted for Milei at the ballot box.
Javier Milei and the culture war
The Kulturkampf plays a special role in Javier Milei’s thinking, said Prof. Dr. Philipp Bagus in his welcoming address. The Kulturkampf is the battle for the better ideas and values. It was about spreading the ideas of freedom. Culture determines the framework with which we interpret the world, and we act on the basis of this interpretation. This framework of interpretation is shaped by images, narratives, symbols, traditions, ideas, values and words. We see the world completely differently if we use the term “social justice” for one and the same issue, or if we use the term “robbery”. The Kulturkampf is not just about showing that statism or socialism is an economic disaster. It is also about the narratives, values and institutions on which capitalism is based. Every system needs a moral justification. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the socialists shifted their arguments from the economic to the cultural. The new argument of the left is now: capitalism is efficient, but unjust.
Javier Milei recognized the importance of the cultural struggle like no other. He never missed an opportunity to spread the ideas of freedom on the global stage and demonstrate their superiority over socialism: economically, morally, socially, culturally and aesthetically. He deserves great thanks for bringing the Kulturkampf to the Liberal Institute in Switzerland.
The Röpke Prize for Civil Society
The Röpke Prize for Civil Society is intended to recognize achievements and attitudes that are related to the concerns of the great economist, and thus those of the Liberal Institute. It is also intended as a sign of gratitude and joy that the liberal culture remains diverse and vibrant. The Röpke Prize is usually awarded annually as part of the Liberal Institute’s celebration of freedom.
Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966) is one of the most important representatives of liberalism in recent Swiss history. As part of his teaching activities at the Geneva “Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales” and his numerous book publications and opinion pieces in the Swiss press, he defended individual freedom, the market economy and a decentralized order. At a time when many of his contemporaries sympathized with the promises of totalitarian ideologies or advocated a “pragmatic adaptation” to them, Wilhelm Röpke still stands today for courage, consistent love of freedom and creative dissidence. According to Röpke, the preservation of a liberal order and a vibrant civil society requires that individual citizens respect and apply liberal values and norms in their everyday lives. With the Röpke Prize for Civil Society, the Liberal Institute therefore honors personalities whose activities strengthen the presence of liberal ideals in society.
The Liberal Institute’s Röpke Prize for Civil Society was first awarded in 2010. Previous winners include Karl Reichmuth, Beat Kappeler, Bruno S. Frey, Charles B. Blankart, Peter Bernholz, Victoria Curzon Price, Andreas Oplatka, Franz Jaeger, Martin Lendi, Tobias Straumann, Gerhard Schwarz, Werner Widmer, Dominik Feusi, Suzette Sandoz and Kaspar Villiger.