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CHEERING: Milei’s supporters cheer for the election result in Buenos Aires. Photo: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EPA / NTCHEER: Milei’s supporters cheer for the election result in Buenos Aires. Photo: ADRIANO MACHADO / Reuters / NTB
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CHEERING: Milei’s supporters cheer for the election result in Buenos Aires. Photo: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EPA / NTB
Javier Milei promises drastic change in an Argentina characterized by economic crisis.
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– Argentina’s situation is critical. The changes our country needs are drastic. There is no room for doing things gradually, and no room for half-way measures, he said from the stage in Buenos Aires on Sunday.
When 97.6 percent of the votes have been counted, Milei has received 55.8 percent of the votes, writes news agency AP.
The second round of the presidential election was between Milei and Argentina’s current economy minister, the career politician Sergio Massa.
53-year-old Milei – who is referred to as a Trump-like figure – has, among other things, gone to the polls saying that he wants to get rid of the political elite in Argentina, writes Washington Post. He is known as a strongly right-wing and market liberal economist.
– The far right has won the elections in Argentina, Colombian President Gustavo Petro writes in a statement and adds:
– It is a sad day for Latin America.
CELEBRATING: Javier Milei with his girlfriend Fatima Florez in Bienos Aires on Sunday. Photo: LUIS ROBAYO / AFP / NTB
Economic crisis
Argentina is in an economic crisis due to massive debt.
While Massa has been economy minister in the Peronist government, prices have risen by 140 percent.
– The result is obviously not what we hoped for, and I have spoken to Javier Milei to congratulate him and wish him luck, because he is the president for whom the majority of Argentines have voted, says Massa in a speech on Monday night.
RECOGNIZED DEFEAT: Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa together with his wife Malena Galmarini on stage after the election defeat on Sunday. Photo: ALEJANDRO PAGNI / AFP / NTBInfo
Argentina
Located in South America and bordered by Chile in the west and south, Paraguay and Bolivia in the north and Brazil and Uruguay in the east. Republic with 23 provinces, in addition to the capital Buenos Aires. The country has a federal system of government with partially autonomous provinces. The president elected every four years and can sit for a maximum of two terms in a row. The country’s population has little faith in the political system, largely due to corruption. The country has for several years been characterized by an economic crisis, with high foreign debt, currency problems, sky-high inflation and increasing poverty.
Source: NTB, UN
Sea view
Much has been at stake in the presidential election: With over 400 billion dollars in national debt, central bank reserves in the red and no credit limit, the next government will have to dig Argentina out of a deep hole.
According to Reuters, Milei has been particularly popular with young people who have grown up in a crisis-ridden Argentina. For them, the new politician represents change.
– I may not agree with everything he says, nor do I identify with everything, but he is our future. Milei represents a future for young people like me, Massa was everything that was wrong with our country, says 20-year-old student Irene Sosa to the news agency.
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DISAPPOINTED: Sergio Massa’s supporters in Buenos Aires on Monday night. Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP / Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP / NTB Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP / NTB Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP / NTB
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DISAPPOINTED: Sergio Massa’s supporters in Buenos Aires on Monday night. Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP /
Several hundred of Milei’s supporters took to the streets of Buenos Aires on the night of Monday Norwegian time, writes the Reuters news agency. Many shouted the slogan against the political elite that Milei has become known for – “out with them”, while rock music blared from the car speakers.
– We have come to celebrate the historic triumph, says the 21-year-old student Efrain Viveros to Reuters.
– I am ecstatic. Milei represents change for the better. With Massa we had no future, now the future is back, he adds.
RIGHT-WING POPULIST: Javier Milei with the chainsaw he uses as a symbol of public cuts. Here during a campaign event on 12 September. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko / AP / NTB
Congratulations from Trump
53-year-old Milei has become known for the chainsaw he uses to signal promises of public cuts.
He ran for election on an economic “shock cure”, writes Reuters. Among other things, he wants to close the central bank, abandon the peso as currency and initiate extensive reforms to reduce public spending.
Milei is against abortion and wants to make it easier to buy weapons and sell human organs. He has also said he does not believe in man-made climate change and has insulted Pope Francis, who is also Argentine.
MORE BACKGROUND? Listen to the podcast about the price increase in Argentina here:
On the night of Monday Norwegian time, he also receives a congratulations from former US President Donald Trump, with whom he has been compared several times:
– The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You want to turn your country around, and “make Argentina great again”, writes the former American president on his platform Truth Social.
Lucas Romero, who heads the local political consulting firm Synopsis, says news agency AP that the election is about people wanting change.
– This is a triumph that is less about Milei and what is special about him, but more about demands for change. What is being expressed at the ballot boxes is exhaustion, a protest from the majority of Argentines, he says.
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Published: 20.11.23 at 01:47
Updated: 20.11.23 at 02:43
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2023-11-20 00:47:39
#Rightwing #populist #won #presidential #election #Argentina #future
