Libertarian economist Javier Milei was inaugurated president of Argentina on Sunday, flanked by a host of heads of state – including Spanish King Felipe VI and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – and surrounded by thousands of supporters in Buenos Aires.
Milei’s inauguration concludes a dramatic, and rapid, ascent to political power for the economist and television commentator, who formed his political party, Liberty Advances, in 2021. Liberty Advances won its first seats in the Argentine Congress that year on an anti-socialist, small-government platform. Milei’s first and only public office before becoming president was to serve in the Argentine Congress for two years. He is the nation’s first libertarian president and vanquished both the deeply entrenched leftist Peronist elite previously in power and the establishment “center-right” coalition that controlled the opposition for nearly two decades.
Milei won Argentina’s presidential election on November 19 against Sergio Massa, the socialist now-former Economy Minister whose government presided over an unprecedented economic crisis that has led to triple-digit inflation, fueling soaring poverty rates, unemployment, and emigration of skilled youth. Campaigning on the slogan “¡viva la libertad, carajo!” – which roughly translates to “long live liberty, damn it!” – Milei asked voters to choose “courage” to overthrow “the same people as always,” the established politicians in the orbit of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner whose tenure was marked by lavish government spending, the reduction in civil liberties during the coronavirus pandemic, and a foreign policy prizing relations with rogue states such as China and Iran.
Milei was inaugurated president in a traditional ceremony before the Argentine Congress attended by a host of high-profile world leaders. In addition to the Spanish king and Zelensky, the halls of Congress welcomed the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou; the recently elected president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban; and Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan. A notable high-profile guest among the presidents was Gabriel Boric, the president of Chile – the only far-left president who attended and who has warmly congratulated Milei in public.
Argentina’s new president Javier Milei (R) is greeted by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after delivering his inaugural speech before the crowd during an inauguration ceremony at the Congress in Buenos Aires on December 10, 2023. (Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
Argentina’s new president Javier Milei is embraced by Brazil’s ex-president (2019-2022) Jair Bolsonaro after delivering his inaugural speech at the steps of the Congress in Buenos Aires on December 10, 2023. (Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
(L-R, first row) Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa attend the inauguration of Argentina’s new president Javier Milei (out of frame) at the Congress in Buenos Aires on December 10, 2023. (ALEJANDRO PAGNI / AFP)
The administration of leftist President Joe Biden sent a low-profile delegation led by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Today, I participated in @JMilei’s inauguration in Buenos Aires and congratulated the new President.
This is a new beginning for Argentina and I wish President Milei and the entire Argentinian people to surprise the world with their successes.
I am also certain that bilateral… pic.twitter.com/WFjsZsDYIQ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 10, 2023
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