The wait is over. The new President of Argentina, Javier Milei, was sworn in today, undertaking the great challenge to fix the broken-down economy and restore the country to its former glory.
The libertarian outsider achieved what many considered impossible, ending the long, disastrous rule of the leftist-globalist Peronists.
La Nacion reported:
“Three minutes before noon, Javier Gerardo Milei swore an oath for the Homeland and the Holy Gospels before the watchful eye of the outgoing vice president, Cristina Kirchner, and the Legislative Assembly and became the eleventh president of the Nation since the return of democracy in 1983.
[…] It was the culminating moment of an atypical ceremony because for the first time, the new head of State preferred to give his presidential inauguration speech from the steps of the Legislative Palace instead of addressing senators and deputies gathered in the Legislative Assembly.”
Milei warned that there is no alternative to a sharp, painful fiscal shock to fix the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation heading towards 200%.
Reuters reported:
“‘There is no alternative to a shock adjustment’, he said on the steps of Congress after taking the presidential baton and sash, with crowds of supporters cheering despite Milei saying the economy would worsen in the short term. ‘There is no money’.”
Milei is taking over from Peronist Alberto Fernandez, whose catastrophic government drove 40% of the population below the poverty line.
“‘The outgoing government has left us on track towards hyperinflation’, Milei said. ‘We are going to do everything we can to avoid such a catastrophe’.
While the speech was light on details, he said key steps would include a fiscal adjustment equivalent to 5% of the country’s GDP through cuts that he said would fall on ‘the state and not the private sector’.”
Read: Argentinian Stocks and Bonds Shoot Up After Javier Milei’s Landslide Presidential Victory
Milei’s economic plan of sharp spending cuts has gone down well with investors, that believe it could stabilize the embattled economy.
“Argentina has gone through boom-bust cycles for decades with money printing to fund regular deficits stoking inflation and weakening the peso. […] If not tamed, inflation could reach 15,000% annually, Milei warned in his speech, pledging to ‘fight tooth and nail’ to eradicate it. He also warned about a $100 billion debt ‘bomb’.”
Milei will also needs to navigate ties with the two biggest important trade partners, China and Brazil, whom he harshly criticized during the campaign.
“The ceremony’s guests included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and a U.S. delegation. Right wing former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro also attended, as well as Uruguay’s conservative leader Luis Lacalle Pou. Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric was also present but leftists Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador were some of the major absences.”
Analysts and markets are anticipating an imminent sharp devaluation of the over-valued peso currency.
“‘We know in the short term the situation will worsen but then we will see the fruits of our efforts’, Milei said. ‘We don’t seek or desire the tough decisions that will need to be made in the weeks ahead, but unfortunately we have no choice’.”
CNN reported:
“’Today, it’s the start of a new era for Argentina, today we close a long and sad history of decadence and decline, and we take the road of reconstruction of our country’, he said as he addressed a crowd from the grand stairwell outside Congress in Buenos Aires.
‘Argentineans had overwhelmingly expressed their desire for change that has no turning back’.
[…] Milei, a social conservative with ties to the American right, opposes abortion rights and has called climate change a ‘lie of socialism’.”
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