It wasn't the most uplifting of inaugural addresses. Rather, President Javier Milei presented figures to lay bare the scope of Argentina's economic emergency and sought to prepare the public for a shock adjustment with drastic public spending cuts, the AP reports. "We don't have alternatives, and we don't have time. We don't have margin for sterile discussions. Our country demands action, and immediate action. The political class left the country at the brink of its biggest crisis in history," he said in his address Sunday to thousands of supporters in the capital, Buenos Aires, on Sunday.
South America's second-largest economy is dealing with 143% annual inflation, the currency has plunged, and four in 10 Argentines are impoverished. The nation has a yawning fiscal deficit, a trade deficit of $43 billion and a daunting $45 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund, with $10.6 billion due to the multilateral and private creditors by April. "There's no money," is Milei's common refrain. He repeated it Sunday to explain why a gradualist approach to the situation, which would require financing, was not an option. But he promised that the adjustment would almost entirely affect the state rather than the private sector, and that it represented the first step toward regaining prosperity.
"We know that in the short term the situation will worsen, but soon we will see the fruits of our effort, having created the base for solid and sustainable growth," he said, per the AP. Earlier on Sunday, Milei was sworn in inside the National Congress building; some of the assembled lawmakers chanted "Liberty!" Milei then broke tradition by delivering his inaugural address not to assembled lawmakers but to his supporters outside—with his back turned to the legislature. Later in the day, he was scheduled to swear in his ministers and meet with foreign dignitaries. Prominent far-right figures will be among them: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; the head of Spain's Vox party, Santiago Abascal; former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Bolsonaro-allied lawmakers, including his son.
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