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Argentina presidential election: far-right Javier Milei wins

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 20 November 2023 / 11:48

Javier Milei, a volatile far-right libertarian who has vowed to "exterminate" inflation has been elected president of Argentina, catapulting South America's second largest economy into an unpredictable and potentially turbulent future.

Tehran (ISNA) - With more than 99% of votes counted, the Mick Jagger impersonating TV celebrity-turned politician, who is often compared to Donald Trump, had secured 55.69% of the vote compared with 44.3% for his rival, the centre-left finance minister Sergio Massa.

"Today the reconstruction of Argentina begins. Today is a historic night for Argentina," Milei told jubilant supporters at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires, calling his victory a "miracle".

Milei promised "drastic changes" to tackle Argentina's "tragic reality" of soaring inflation and widespread poverty. He also sent a message to the international community: "Argentina will return to the place in the world which it should never have lost."

Earlier, Massa - who received 11.5m votes to Milei's 14.4m - conceded defeat.

"Argentinians have chosen another path," said Massa, who said he had called Milei to congratulate him on his victory and would retire from frontline politics.

"Obviously these are not the results we hoped for and I have spoken to Javier Milei to congratulate him because he's the president that the majority of Argentines have chosen for the next four years," added Massa, whose Peronist movement has governed for 16 of the last 20 years.

During his campaign, Milei - who will take office on 10 December - vowed to abolish the central bank and dollarise the economy in order to overcome a financial calamity that has left 40% of Argentina's 45 million citizens in poverty and pushed inflation to more than 140%. "I know how to exterminate the cancer of inflation," Milei proclaimed during last Sunday's final presidential debate which most pundits believed Massa had won.

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