<\/p>\n
Libertarian outsider Javier Milei pulled off a massive upset Sunday with a resounding win in Argentina\u2019s presidential election, plunging the country into uncertainty in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.<\/p>\n
The self-described \u201canarcho-capitalist\u201d fired up Argentines fed-up with decades of economic stagnation under the long-dominant populist Peronist coalition.<\/p>\n
While polls had predicted a tight race, provisional results showed Milei had won with 55.7 per cent of the vote to 44pc scored by his rival, the Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who rapidly conceded defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the results are not what we had hoped for, and I have spoken to Javier Milei to congratulate him and wish him well, because he is the president that the majority of Argentines have elected for the next four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thousands of Milei supporters waved flags and chanted \u201cfreedom\u201d as they celebrated outside his campaign headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are tired of Peronism. Milei is an unknown, but better a madman than a thief,\u201d said 50-year-old writer Nacho Larranaga, wearing the blue-and-white Argentina flag as a cape.<\/p>\n
Milei, a 53-year-old economist with wild hair and thick sideburns, has drawn comparisons with former US president Donald Trump and Brazil\u2019s Jair Bolsonaro for his abrasive style and controversial remarks.<\/p>\n
His main platform has been a plan to ditch the ailing peso for the US dollar and \u201cdynamite\u201d the Central Bank to do away with the \u201ccancer of inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the change that us young people want. I am not afraid of Milei, I am afraid my dad won\u2019t be able to pay his rent. The Argentine peso isn\u2019t worth a thing,\u201d said Juan Ignacio Gmez, 17.<\/p>\n
Milei is against abortion, pro-gun, vowed to cut ties with Argentina\u2019s key trading partners China and Brazil, insulted Pope Francis, questioned the death toll under Argentina\u2019s brutal dictatorship, and says humans are not behind climate change.<\/p>\n
He had toned down his rhetoric before the run-off to appeal to more moderate voters, but earlier in the campaign took to the stage wielding a powered-up chainsaw to symbolize the drastic cuts he plans to make to a bloated state.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wished \u201cgood luck and success\u201d to the Argentine government in a social media post that did not mention Milei.<\/p>\n
Milei\u2019s red-faced rants against the \u201cthieving and corrupt political class\u201d struck a nerve with Argentines struggling to make ends meet and fed up with politicians they see as the architects of their misery.<\/p>\n
Others were spooked by his style in an election that has polarized the nation.<\/p>\n
Teacher Catalina Miguel, 42, among a dejected crowd at Massa\u2019s campaign headquarters said she was in \u201cshock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMilei will find us on the street defending every right he seeks to challenge. Half of Argentina does not support him.\u201d On the other end of Milei\u2019s chainsaw are millions of Argentines who depend on welfare assistance and generous government subsidies for fuel, electricity and transport \u2014 with bus tickets costing only a few cents.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the country\u2019s coffers are in the red, with $44 billion debt with the International Monetary Fund looming over the incoming government.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Ana Iparraguirre said that Argentines should brace themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever comes into office has to make some quick decisions that are going to hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Milei is set to take office on December 10, leaving his rival Massa still in charge of the economy for three weeks, analysts predict a rocky ride with the strictly controlled peso ripe for devaluation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith almost 150pc inflation, things could rapidly scale out of control in those weeks. So that\u2019s a period of a lot of instability,\u201d said Iparraguirre.<\/p>\n
Carlos Gervasoni, a political science professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, said that if he wins, Milei will be \u201ccompletely weak in Congress.<\/p>\n
He will definitely not be able to implement a lot of his ideas.\u201c Milei, a Buenos Aires lawmaker who carried out much of his campaign on TikTok and other social media, surged to the front of the race in a primary election in August.<\/p>\n
He then landed seven points behind Massa in an October first-round vote.<\/p>\n
After winning the backing of the third-placed centre-right opposition, he scrambled to appeal to moderate and hundreds of thousands of undecided voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cArgentina is part of the regional trend of a real weakening of political parties and the emergence of an outsider who\u2026 has a powerful message that resonates: just get rid of the political class and then everything will be ok,\u201d said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Libertarian outsider Javier Milei pulled off a massive upset Sunday with a resounding win in Argentina\u2019s presidential election, plunging the country into uncertainty in the midst of a crippling economic crisis. The self-described \u201canarcho-capitalist\u201d fired up Argentines fed-up with decades of economic stagnation under the long-dominant populist Peronist coalition. While polls had predicted a tight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/2014160095131af.jpg?r=141630","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}