Javier Milei easily defeated Sergio Massa, the candidate of the outgoing Administration, in the second round of the presidential elections on November 19. Now, there are moments of definitions and expectations in Argentina, facing the assumption of the libertarian economist as president.
With 55.7% of the votes, Javier Milei overwhelmingly defeated, by more than 11 points, Sergio Massa in the second electoral round on November 19 and will become the first anarcho-capitalist president of the country – he says of the world-. He will take office on December 10, with an economy in an inflationary crisis (more than 140%) and a high poverty rate (more than 40%).
But immediately, what he has to resolve is the assembly of his government, the transition from Alberto Fernández’s management to his own, and how he will build links with power factors, local and global, to implement the measures and policies. what you have on your agenda.
A dizzying week
The intensity of what happens during these days affects the perception of time and makes the elections seem like they happened more than a few days ago, much further back in time than last Sunday.
These days until Milei arrives at the Rosada house, which is somewhat in limbo, the question that is in the air is: what now? The answer, if it is always difficult when talking about the future of a newly elected administration, is especially elusive when it comes to a figure with almost no political history, without government experience, with unusual or extreme proposals.
For now, Milei gave a series of interviews to local media, in which he assured, among other things, that a shock is coming, that the next few months will be difficult, that there is no money, that we must reform the State and adjust its spending, that there will be no funds for public works and that it will privatize a series of state companies, including public media and the oil company YPF, which today is 51% in the hands of the State. But the proposals to dollarize and close the Central Bank seem, for now, to have been left for later.
One of the keys at this moment, in the immediate future, is the transition: what will be the transition from the Government of Alberto Fernández (or Sergio Massa, who has been at the center of management for months) to that of Javier Milei. On Monday, November 20, one day after the election, Fernández and Milei were going to meet to begin discussing the terms of that transfer, but the meeting was postponed and took place on Tuesday.
Not many specific details of what was discussed in the more than two hours of meeting were known, but in any case that marked the beginning of the transition process, which had a new milestone on Wednesday, November 22 with the meeting in the Senate of the current vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who due to her position is also president of the Upper House, and vice president-elect Victoria Villarruel. At the end of the meeting, the latter stated that it was a pleasant conversation and that among other things they talked about the work ahead of the inauguration on December 10.
For now there does not seem to be any major friction between the outgoing and incoming Administration, nor major shocks, nor decisions by the Fernández administration that could further complicate the already very complex scenario in which Milei will take office. However, there are still more than ten days left.
A cabinet with names that come and go
The other central issue had – has – to do with the names of the president-elect’s cabinet of eight ministries, ten less than there are now. There were many twists and turns and, although some names seem definitively confirmed, nothing seems irreversible: some who were number ones were no longer so.
Names continue to appear every day, despite the fact that a statement from the X account of the Office of the President-elect had warned the day after the elections: “There will be no announcement of appointments until the day of the inauguration.”
For now, there are some names that seem confirmed. Guillermo Francos, who served as main spokesperson during the campaign, will be Minister of the Interior. Francos is a man with experience in politics, he was a deputy and until very recently he was a representative of the Government of Alberto Fernández at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Engineer Nicolás Posse will be his chief of staff. Both Francos and Posse worked at Corporación América, the group of businessman Eduardo Eurnekián, the same group where Javier Milei was employed.
The next Minister of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, also arrives on Eurnekián’s side, because he provided his lawyer services for the businessman. Cúneo Libarona, criminal lawyer, had a very high profile during the 90s, when he handled very brilliant cases and is a man with extensive experience in Justice.
Economist Diana Mondino, a finance specialist, will be the Chancellor. Her name has been associated with that position for weeks, as has that of Francos for the Interior. The same happens with Sandra Pettovello, a less publicly known figure, who will take charge of an organization with great budgetary control: the Ministry of Human Capital, which will absorb the areas of Education, Health, Labor and Social Development. Pettovello has a degree in Family Sciences from the Austral University, an institution linked to Opus Dei.
In Infrastructure, Milei appointed Guillermo Ferraro, a businessman, who held positions in the public sector in various administrations since the 90s. His portfolio will concentrate the areas of Public Works, Energy, Mining, Transportation and Communication. As Milei wants the State to withdraw from public works, Ferraro’s objective will be to promote the development of these projects by the private sector.
Other names, which seemed already defined, were no longer so. Emilio Ocampo, the economist who was going to be appointed to head the Central Bank to close it, finally it seems that he will not occupy that position. Carolina Píparo, who had been the candidate for governor of the province of Buenos Aires for Milei’s party, was going to be in charge of Anses (the organization in charge of retirements), but in the end she will not occupy that place. His position, as well as that of president of the Central Bank, and others, could be occupied by people close to Mauricio Macri or Juan Schiaretti, the dissident Peronist who was a candidate for the Presidency and is governor of the central bank – geographically, economically and politically – province of Cordoba.
The key minister, the Economy Minister, is the one who remains to be defined. Throughout the week it seemed that it could be confirmed that it would be Luis Caputo, who was a key official in the government of former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). Caputo was in charge of the Finance area and was also president of the Central Bank in that administration. In the past, Milei was very harsh with Caputo, accusing him of mismanagement of public finances, but this week he maintained that he has an adequate profile to occupy the position.
In the absence of confirmation of who will be the Minister of Economy, perhaps the most striking name is that of Patricia Bullrich, the presidential candidate of the center-right coalition Together for Change, who was left out in the first round and then gave her support, together with Macri –his political boss–, to Javier Milei. Bullrich, she will be – if nothing changes between now and December 10 – Minister of Security, the same position she held during the Macri government. Ferraro, the designated Minister of Infrastructure, also worked with Macri, when he was head of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (2007-2015).
When referring to the agreement with Macri, Milei pointed out that it had been without conditions, that it was simply support. The question was how much the former president was going to seek to influence the formation of the new government and the policies. Several of the names that are appearing now are close to Macri and were even part of his administration. For Milei’s voters, who elected him to put an end to the political “caste”, what appears to be a growing Macrista intervention in the Milei army may be perceived as a surrender, but one thing is to campaign and another is to govern.
In this sense, the definitions of the cabinet spaces go in parallel with the task of building bridges with the legislative benches, in which Milei is far from having its own majorities, and with the governors of the provinces. But they are not the only interlocutors with whom you will have to dialogue, negotiate and eventually break or compromise: there are also business groups, unions, social organizations, to name just a few.
The markets, in principle, celebrated
Monday was a holiday in Argentina and local markets did not operate, but Argentine shares of companies listed in the United States, and the country’s bonds, significantly improved their prices (some of them fell during the week).
When the markets opened on Tuesday, the blue dollar – the illegal parallel exchange rate, but which is still a reference – rose more than 10%, to 1,075 pesos per dollar, but on Thursday it closed at 1,045. And the dollars financial –legal– also remained around 1000 pesos. Although it began to increase again and is around 372 pesos, the official dollar is still very far from the other exchange rates.
For its part, the Merval index of the Buenos Aires stock market rose nearly 40% between the close of the week before the election and Thursday afternoon.
Milei and the world
During the week, in addition to all this, Milei was receiving communications from leaders from various parts of the world. Among them were the American Joe Biden, the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky and Pope Francis. In the past, Milei had spoken very badly of the Supreme Pontiff and at a campaign event, a representative of her party had said that relations with the Vatican should be cut. But then Milei assured that he had apologized. In any case, Francisco’s call seems to have been cordial and Milei invited him to visit Argentina.
The president-elect had also had critical words towards China, but that did not stop the president of that country, Xi Jinping, from sending him a letter congratulating him and highlighting the cooperation between both nations: China is Argentina’s second trading partner, behind Brazil. .
It remains to be seen if Milei’s promise of only having a privileged link with the United States and Israel is sustained, or if it maintains strategic links like those the country has today with Brazil and China.
There are also open questions about what will happen to Argentina’s position regarding Mercosur, an eventual entry into the BRICS, something that Milei has rejected, and the Mercosur-European Union treaty, whose implementation has not been approved due to differences between the blocs.
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