Populist Javier Milei on Sunday resoundingly won Argentina’s presidential election, following a fiercely polarized campaign in which he promised a dramatic shake-up to the state to deal with soaring inflation and rising poverty.
With 99.4 percent of votes tallied in the presidential runoff, Milei had 55.7 percent and Argentine Minister of Economy Sergio Massa had 44.3 percent, the country’s electoral authority said.
It is the highest percentage that a presidential candidate has received since the South American country’s return to democracy in 1983.
Photo: AFP
In the streets of Buenos Aires, drivers honked their horns and many took to the streets to celebrate in several neighborhoods. Outside Milei’s party headquarters, a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, supporters were singing, buying beers from vendors and setting off colored smoke bombs. They waved Argentine flags and the yellow Gadsden flag, emblazoned with the words: “Don’t Tread On Me,” which Milei’s movement adopted.
The self-described anarcho-capitalist, who has been compared to former US president Donald Trump, said in his victory speech that the “reconstruction of Argentina begins today.”
“Argentina’s situation is critical. The changes our country needs are drastic. There is no room for gradualism, no room for lukewarm measures,” Milei told supporters, who chanted: “Liberty, liberty” and “Let them all leave” in a reference to the country’s political class.
Massa of the ruling Peronist party, the Renewal Front, had already conceded defeat, saying Argentines “chose another path.”
“Starting tomorrow ... guaranteeing the political, social and economic functions is the responsibility of the new president. I hope he does,” Massa said.
With a Milei victory, the country would take an abrupt shift rightward, with a freshman lawmaker who got his start as a television talking head blasting what he called the “political caste” assuming the presidency.
Inflation has soared more than 140 percent and poverty has worsened while Massa has held his post.
Milei has said he would slash the size of the government, dollarize the economy and eliminate the central bank as a way to tackle galloping inflation that he blames on successive governments printing money indiscriminately to fund public spending.
He also espouses several conservative social policies, including an opposition to sex education in schools and abortion, which the Argentine Congress legalized in 2020.
“This is a triumph that is less due to Milei and his peculiarities and particularities, and more to the demand for change,” said Lucas Romero, the head of Synopsis, a local political consulting firm. “What is being expressed at the polls is the weariness, the fatigue, the protest vote of the majority of Argentines.”
Massa’s campaign cautioned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to eliminate key ministries and otherwise sharply curtail the state would threaten public services, including health and education, and welfare programs many rely on.
Massa also drew attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and openly questioned his mental acuity. Ahead of the first round, Milei sometimes carried a revving chain saw at rallies.
“There were lot of voters that weren’t convinced to vote Milei, who would vote null or blank, but come the day of the vote, they voted for Milei because they’re all pissed off,” Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel, said by telephone. “Everyone talked about the fear of Milei winning. I think this was a fear of Massa winning and economy continuing the way it is, inflation and all that.”
Apps and Web sites that use artificial intelligence (AI) to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, researchers said. In September alone, 24 million people visited undressing Web sites, the social network analysis company Graphika said. Many of these undressing, or “nudify,” services use popular social networks for marketing, Graphika said. For instance, since the beginning of this year, the number of links advertising undressing apps increased more than 2,400 percent on social media, including on X and Reddit, the researchers said. The services use AI to recreate an image so that the person is nude. Many of the services only
IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL: About 80 percent of Russians approve of Putin, a survey shows, but that might be misleading due to his intolerance to criticism Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election in March that he is all but certain to win. Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting an immensely costly war in Ukraine that has taken thousands of his people’s lives, provoked repeated attacks inside Russia — including one on the Kremlin itself — and corroded its aura of invincibility. A short-lived rebellion in June by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin raised widespread speculation that Putin could be
TAKING STOCK: It was not yet clear how damaging the espionage, dating to 1981, has been, as authorities are still assessing the situation, the State Department said A former US ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested and charged with spying for Cuba over a 40-year span, the US Department of Justice announced on Monday, detailing a shock betrayal by a suspect who called the US “the enemy.” US Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out the allegations against Victor Manuel Rocha, a onetime member of the White House’s National Security Council now accused of using his positions within the government to support Cuba’s “clandestine intelligence-gathering mission” against the US. The charges against Rocha, 73, expose “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign
DARK WARNINGS: If Trump survives his court trials, neither the Supreme Court nor the US Constitution could stop him from becoming president for life, a ‘Post’ column said Former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to rule out abusing power if he returns to the White House after Fox News host Sean Hannity asked him to respond to growing criticism of his rhetoric. The Republican presidential front-runner has talked about targeting his rivals — referring to them as “vermin” — and vowed to seek retribution if he wins a second term for what he argues are politically motivated prosecutions against him. As Trump has dominated the Republican presidential primary, US President Joe Biden has stepped up his own warnings, contending that Trump is “determined to destroy American democracy.” “Under no
RSS