Wearing the presidential sash, Milei spoke on the steps of the National Congress, looking at the audience concentrated in the square in front of the parliament. The new president of Argentina thus innovated the country’s historical protocol, not giving his first speech, after taking office, to parliamentarians. As she did in the presidential campaign, Milei chose to speak directly to her supporters.
Milei’s speech was based on two pillars: the difficult economic and social legacy he received from the government of former president Alberto Fernández and the adjustments that Argentines will suffer in the first months of his government. “It will be difficult times,” she said, in the bright sun. Milei acknowledged that inflation, which reached 142% in the 12 months up to October this year, will continue to rise with the first measures of his administration (price release, as in the case of health plans, and the gradual withdrawal of subsidies that currently reduce the final price of public transport tickets).
Milei’s speech focused mainly on the current Argentine economic situation. He cited numbers when talking about the debts of the Central Bank, the Treasury and international organizations (IMF, mainly). “This is all a bomb in terms of debt,” said Milei. “We have no alternative but to adjust,” he said. According to him, only through cuts will Argentina be able to emerge from what he called “decadence”. “There is no money. We need to adjust. There will be inflation, but it will not be much different from what we have seen in the last 12 years (of Kirchnerism). But this will be the last bad moment before we start rebuilding Argentina,” he said. The new president of Argentina also stated that after the “difficult times” “the light at the end of the tunnel” will emerge. It will be quite a test for Argentines and their ability to govern, without the majority of seats in the National Congress.
But, despite the announcements of times even more difficult than the current ones, the public, in Congress Square, reacted with shouts of support: “Milei, dear, the people are with you”. And yet: “Yes, it is possible.”
Milei spoke about the high poverty rate in the country (45%, according to official data), about school dropout rates in the country that was one of the first in the world to have eradicated illiteracy, at the beginning of the 20th century, which will not tolerate protests with blocking streets and roads (‘whoever does this will lose the social program’, he said). And she emphasized: “The situation is critical, it is an emergency.”
Milei, who assumes the Casa Rosada after a meteoric political career, just two years after being elected deputy for the first time, cited in his speech two of his favorite phrases – ‘No hay plata’ (There is no money) and ‘the forces from heaven’ (biblical verse from the Book of Maccabees that he cited for the first time when he took over as deputy). When he took office, as a deputy, the bench of his party A Liberdade Avança (LLA) was formed by him and his now vice-president Victoria Villarruel.
In his inauguration speech, this Sunday (10), Milei did not, however, mention two of his campaign slogans – ‘dynamiting the Central Bank’ and ‘polarizing the economy’.