Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei is ready to bypass hostile legislators who blocked his landmark economic reforms and rely on decrees and other executive powers to implement his radical austerity plan.
His strategy for reviving the stricken economy is widely perceived as high-risk, but Milei waved aside doubts during a confident interview at the pink-coloured presidential palace, the Casa Rosada. He said he was making faster progress than expected with a fiscal adjustment so drastic it had no parallel “not just in Argentina but the world”.
The chance of ordinary Argentines rioting against austerity was “zero” and his message to Argentina’s growing number of poor, he said, was: “You don’t get out of poverty by magic. You get out of poverty with capitalism, savings and hard work.”