Milei, deputy of La Libertad Avanza, minimized the situation. “Many of the analyzes that are doing the rounds are quite precarious. What happens is that many international analysts are nourished by local analysts who also play politically. The things they are told about me are not positive at all. But what better for the market than a pro-market economist,” she told a local radio station.
Susana Celis, 44, who was celebrating in the economist’s campaign office early Monday morning, told The Associated Press that she hopes that “absolutely everything that is wrong will change at its root… We Argentines are used to being Pat me on the shoulder and then do something else,” said the woman who, like many, fights against inflation, which in the last measurement in June was 115% year-on-year.
“I am a simple domestic employee who struggles a lot every day and struggles. They’re putting a Molotov cocktail in my path. ‘The party’s over (the party)’, she says (Milei). What the fuck? Have the right to study for free? Go to a hospital ward and be treated for free?” Natalia Rodas, 36, complained.
Marta Gisela Barrera, 29, who looks for materials on the streets to recycle, said she is afraid. “The man (Milei) is not normal and he talks with such rage… I’m desperate to see what will happen.”
During the celebration of her triumph, Milei maintained that Argentina is “before the end of the (political) caste model based on that atrocity that where there is a need a right is born (and) whose maximum aberration is social justice, but it is they forget that it is unfair that only a few pay it”.
The Security Minister, Aníbal Fernández, warned that the deputy’s proposals could generate violence if they were put into practice. “If what they say is what they are going to do, this only ends with repression. They are going to have deaths, they are going to have blood”.
In the surprising internships that revealed a tilt of the electorate to the right, the former Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, was in turn the winner of the internship of the opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio, while the ruling Peronism ranked third. with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, as a candidate.
The ruling party tried to calm the market, which was expecting a victory for Together for Change. The Central Bank ordered a change in the administration of the exchange rate, leaving behind the daily adjustment to stabilize the value of the peso. The measure implies bringing forward the devaluation that was scheduled for the coming months and establishing an exchange rate of 350 pesos per US dollar. In turn, the reference interest rate rose 21 points to 118% per year to prevent Argentines from taking refuge in the dollar so as not to lose purchasing power.
Within a few hours, the blackboards of the state-owned Banco Nación showed the dollar at 365.5 pesos – from 298 on Friday. The dollar that trades in the parallel market, to which savers resort due to government limitations to acquire foreign currency, shot up to 685 pesos compared to 605 on Friday.
According to the consultancy Capital Economics, “the fall of the peso will push inflation even more, perhaps up to 130-140%” annually.
To calm things down, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement on Monday in which it valued “the authorities’ recent policy actions and the commitment to safeguard stability, rebuild reserves, and strengthen fiscal order.”
He recalled that his technical staff and the Argentine authorities reached an agreement at the end of July on the reviews of the debt refinancing program of some 45,000 million dollars contracted by the country in 2018.
“The agreement is subject to the approval of the Executive Board of the IMF, which is expected to meet on August 23 to approve the agreed disbursements” for Argentina, indicated a statement from the agency.
Milei had previously said that the IMF “should not have problems with the program that we have proposed because we propose a much deeper fiscal adjustment.”
The economist proposes closing the Central Bank to prevent it from continuing to issue pesos and accelerating inflation, which has thrown 40% of the population into poverty. He is in favor of the free carrying of arms and the sale of organs and against abortion. He affirms that climate change is a lie and is an admirer of the former presidents of Brazil and the United States, Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, respectively.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pointed out that inflation and economic crises “always help the right and conservatism, which is somewhat what is happening in Argentina” and recalled the case of Adolf Hitler, although he clarified that he was not comparing it with Milei.
“Here it is important to remember that Hitler, among other things, rises up, consolidates himself as a leader after an inflation that was suffered before he came to power. Inflation helps him, being an authoritarian conservative,” said the Mexican president.
Jorge Arias, from the Polilat consultancy, predicted a volatile economic scenario until the elections.
“The markets are going to be highly speculative, even more than what was already coming, with a Central Bank and an economy quite battered, so there are not many possibilities of fire,” Arias told AP.
He added that Massa -a moderate within Peronism who has well-established ties with US leaders and is accepted by the financial markets- “will have to assert all the qualities of a magician, both as a candidate and as Minister of Economy… to generate actions that they can tame the situation”.
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AP journalists Débora Rey, Daniel Politi and Natacha Pisarenko contributed to this story from Buenos Aires and María Verza from Mexico City.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
