– This is a historic night for our country, the beginning of the end of decadence – announced Javier Milei, president-elect elected by the people of Argentina with nearly 56 percent of the votes. The second round of the presidential elections took place in this country on Sunday. Milea’s rival, Sergio Massa, the current economy minister in the left-wing Peronist government, received 44 percent support.
– Reconstruction begins today Argentina – Javier Milei announced late on Sunday evening, in his first speech after the announcement of the results of the second round elections, which took place on Sunday. – This is a historic night for our country, the beginning of the end of decadence – added Milei, stating that “Argentina will return to the path from which it should never deviate.”
The changes Argentina needs will be ‘drastic’
A supporter of extreme economic liberalism in state policy, he announced that “historic changes” would be made quickly in a country that is “experiencing the most severe crisis in its history.”
The president-elect warned his countrymen that the changes Argentina needs will be “drastic because there is no time to gradually or mitigate them.”
Javier MileiJuan Ignacio Roncoroni/PAP/EPA
The winner of the presidential elections assured that “regardless of where they come from and what they have done so far, we will welcome all those who want to start building a new Argentina.” He expressed his belief that “Argentina, guided by the ideas of freedom, will finally return to the group of world powers.”
Milei, a supporter of the dollarization of the Argentine economy and ensuring personal security for Argentines through universal access to weapons, won in the second round of the elections against the candidate of the Peronist camp, Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, who, after announcing the preliminary results of the vote, congratulated his rival.
Warning of danger
In the week before the second round of voting, a group of more than a hundred Argentine intellectuals and scientists published a document in which they warned of the dangers for society that lie behind some of 53-year-old Milei’s “extremely libertarian” proposals, including his proposed “reduction to a minimum” of spending for public purposes.
Javier MileiEPA/Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
The Argentine media, like Minister Massa, in their comments on the program proposed by the future president to reduce state spending for public purposes as much as possible, warn of the inevitable “social catastrophe” that this program will lead to. The aim of this move is to fight against the highest three-digit figure in the region inflation.
Sergio MassaEPA/MATIAS MARTIN CAMPAYA
One of Milei’s supporters appeared publicly at the end of the election campaign with a chainsaw in his hand, referring to the plan proposed by this politician, and now president-elect, to cut state spending on health care. Photos from this event were circulated in the Argentine media, which, however, did not prevent the growth of support among Argentine voters for the supporter of ultra-radical cuts intended to heal the Argentine economy, which is in deep crisis.
The media reports that the vote was peaceful
In the first comments, Latin American media emphasize the good organization and peaceful course of voting in nearly seventeen thousand Argentine polling stations. Voting is compulsory in Argentina for 35.8 million citizens. 86,000 soldiers and policemen ensured its safe course.
Main photo source: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/PAP/EPA