Milei promises to stop inflation in 2 years; transition in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES.

“Destroy” inflation and privatize: the ultraliberal Javier Milei, elected president of Argentina, announced yesterday his first government measures to confront the economic crisis.

"Inflation. It will be a long fight that will take between 18 and 24 months to destroy it and bring it to the lowest international levels,” he told Argentine media.

Currently, the price increase is at 140% annually in the South American country.

“My intention is to be the first link in Argentine reconstruction. Then we will see if I have to govern for four or eight years. “I want my government to mark a turning point in Argentine history,” he stated.

His first step will be to undertake a strong reform of the State that will include privatizations, he indicated.

“Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector is going to be in the hands of the private sector,” declared the president-elect last Sunday with a difference of 11 points above his rival, Sergio Massa.

In addition, Milei confirmed that he will reduce his cabinet from 18 to eight ministers.

“We are going to start first with the reform of the State, to put the public accounts in cash very quickly,” he added.

In the same sense, the virtual president aspires to end subsidies for public services and eliminate taxes on exports.

Milei's main challenges will be to lower inflation, balance public accounts, eliminate exchange controls and cut public spending.

The politician from La Libertad Avanza must assume the presidency on December 10 for a period of four years.

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is invited to the ceremony.

On the other hand, the current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom Milei has disqualified as “corrupt” and “communist”, will not attend.

A meeting with Peronist President Alberto Fernández is pending to begin the transition.

Since 2003, Argentina had been governed by the Peronism of the current vice president and two-time president Cristina Kirchner, except for the period of the right-wing Mauricio Macri from 2015 to 2019.

• 40.1 percent The shares of the Argentine oil company YPF increased on the New York Stock Exchange.

Mexico congratulates the winner

After the election day in Argentina, in which the far-right Javier Milei won, the Mexican government congratulated that nation and the elected president.

"The government of Mexico congratulates the Argentine people for their civic participation in the elections, as well as the winning candidate, Javier Milei, with whom we will seek to maintain a constructive relationship for the benefit of both peoples and the region," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Exteriors in the social network X.

Prior to this, the chancellor, Alicia Bárcena, said that Mexico would work with the new government.

“I congratulate Argentina for a peaceful election day. “Mexico and Argentina share fundamental values ​​such as democracy, which is respect for the voice of the people,” she expressed.

Enrique Sanchez

Axis of action

The election day in Argentina, which gave victory to the far-right Javier Milei, represented a punishing vote, experts agreed.

There was a vote against Kirchnerism, said journalist Jorge Fernández Menéndez, who described the election as “convulsed by all the changes it implies.”

“We must assume that more than a vote for Milei, which of course there was, there was a vote of fed up with Kirchnerism, with everything that Cristina Fernández means, people were fed up,” he said in an interview with Pascal Beltrán del Río for Radio Image.

One of the lessons of the electoral process is that “democracy is the only verifier of popular support, that polls are not and that no one can let the idea slip that their opponent is unbeatable because the polls say so,” he asserted. Luis Costa Bonino, electoral strategist.

“There is always a possible space where to place a totally disruptive campaign, contrary to a party or a political situation,” he said.