Javier Milei was sworn in three weeks after his resounding electoral victory.
Argentina enters a “new era”. Ultraliberal Javier Milei was inaugurated president this Sunday, taking the oath of office three weeks after his resounding electoral victory. This newcomer to the Argentine political scene, aged 53, has sworn to honor his office with “loyalty and patriotism” and donned the blue and white presidential sash.
Following the brief ceremony, Javier Milei delivered his first speech as president, not in front of parliamentarians as is tradition, but in front of the crowd from the steps of Parliament.
Javier Milei was invested under the gaze of nationalist leaders or politicians, such as the former far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or even Santiago Abascal, the leader of the Spanish far-right group Vox . Spain’s King Felipe VI was also present, as was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was able to speak with Viktor Orbán and meet other Latin American leaders.
Milei, an economist best known for years as a popular polemical panelist on TV, has turned Argentine politics on its head. Elected deputy in 2021, he swept aside the Peronist (center-left) and right-wing blocs, which had alternated in power for 20 years, with a clear message.
On November 19, he achieved a victory that surprised by its magnitude, winning in the second round of the presidential election against the outgoing centrist Economy Minister, Sergio Massa, with 55.6% of the vote.
Third largest economy in Latin America but faced with chronic inflation, at 143% over one year, structural debt, and 40% poverty, Argentina is preparing for painful adjustments in the coming days or weeks.the president having promised shock therapy to reduce public spending.