The right-wing ultraliberal Javier Milei is the new president-elect of Argentina. With 86% of the votes counted, the anarcho-capitalist won the run-off with 56% against the progressive Peronist candidate Sergio Massa (44.04%), in a historic and crucial election for the country.
“Today begins the end of Argentine decadence. Let’s begin reconstruction and turn the page of our history. Let’s resume the path we should never have lost. The model of the state that impoverishes and blesses only some while the majority suffers ends. It is a historic night, let us return to embracing the idea of freedom, “said the new head of state in his first speech.
Having placed the leather jacket in the wardrobe, Milei showed up in a jacket and tie alongside his sister Karina, his support throughout the electoral campaign, combed and fresh from the barber. “We know there are people who will resist to maintain their privileges. We will be relentless: Inside the law everything, outside the law nothing“, he warned, warning the caste, and asking the Peronist government of Alberto Fernandez to “take charge of the country until the end of the mandate”.
Milei will take up his mandate on December 10, precisely on the fortieth anniversary of democracy since the last military dictatorship. “The situation is dramatic, there is no room for gradualism, for half measures”, indicated the winner, listing inflation, poverty, misery and insecurity as the most urgent challenges. “Argentina has a future and it is liberal”, he then observed, promising that, in 35 years, the country will be “a world power”.
In his presentation, Milei avoided talking about his flagships such asdollarization or the closure of the Central Bank. But she couldn’t help but vibrate her motto: “Long live freedom, damn it“. “Long live freedom, damn it”, acclaimed by the roar of his people, before embracing his parents, while in the cities of the country, from Buenos Aires to Cordoba to Mendoza, thousands with the blue and white flags gathered to celebrate with singing, dancing, drum rolls and carousels.
A few hours earlier in a dramatic speech, Massa had admitted defeat by leaving the scene while the counting of votes was still in progress. “Argentina has a solid and strong democratic system that always respects results. Obviously the outcome is not what we expected and I contacted Javier Milei to congratulate him and wish him good luck as he will be the next president. He is the president-elect by the majority for the next four years”, explained the Minister of Economy, to the disappointment of his supporters, who nevertheless granted him the embrace of applause. “I did it – he commented – convinced that the most important thing we must leave tonight is the message that coexistence, dialogue and respect for peace in the face of so much violence and disqualification is the best path we can take”. The Argentines, however, “have chosen another path – he highlighted – And from tomorrow the responsibility of providing certainties, of transmitting guarantees on a social, political and economic level, falls to the elected president. We hope he does so”.
Milei’s victory was already in the air as soon as the polls closed. “We have preliminary data that gives us confidence. A change is beginning in Argentina”, explained the spokespersons of La Libertad Avanza without hiding a certain enthusiasm. An atmosphere also confirmed by the euphoric message that former president Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich, the candidate of Together for Change (centre-right), who remained out of the ballot and who gave her support to Milei, sent to all polling station observers declared themselves “very satisfied” with the work done, while the first rumors already showed a clear victory.