President Javier Milei spoke this Sunday in two long interviews with media from the City of Buenos Aires. In both notes, he referred to the speech of the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during an event in Quilmes and also to the current economic situation, to the situation of the universities and what is happening within La Libertad Avanza.
In addition, Milei gave his opinion on the candidacy of Judge Ariel Lijo for the Supreme Court of Justice, on the opposition and on journalists.
In total, and according to a survey released by the National Government, Milei touched on 23 topics.
Milei’s 23 most powerful phrases
1) Milei and the change of social mood
“We are working hard to get the country out of the darkest period it has experienced in these 100 years of decadence, and that requires a lot of work, a lot of conviction, a lot of courage, but the reality is that that is why we got involved. There are some indicators, such as one that appeared in a survey carried out by Federico Aurelio. Although today a large part of the population recognizes that it is wrong, the number of people who are wrong is increasingly smaller; and the people who recognize that it is getting better is going up. What one is seeing is that the social mood is changing.”
2) Milei and the rising economy
“The economy is improving. Let’s think that wholesale inflation, when we assumed it, was at 54%, which is equivalent to 17,000% annually. That 54% today is at 5%; that is, almost an eleventh apart. Retail inflation from 25% levels is around 10%. It is expected that in the future inflation will enter the single-digit range, that core (core) is close to 5%.”
3) Milei and salaries, pensions and mortgage loans
“The leading indicators of activity are showing that, for example, the leading index of the Di Tella (university) went up. One begins to see indicators that are improving. Not only that, but salaries have already begun to outpace inflation. This means that real salaries are being recomposed. The recomposition of pensions is also being carried out. These improvements are so notable that mortgage credit has returned in Argentina.”
4) Milei and the negative effects of populism
“We had 20 years of populism so far this century. Salaries in dollars at values from the ’90s, when we assumed them, should have been US$3,000 and were US$600; That is to say, we lost 80% of our income. The damage that populism has done to us! “This idea of stimulating consumption, punishing savings… punishing savings means punishing investment.”
5) Milei and the reduction of the fiscal deficit
“In the last 13 years, GDP per capita has fallen 15%. It’s a catastrophe. One of the things we are doing is reducing the fiscal deficit by 15 points of GDP. Of that, 5 were in the Treasury and 10 in the Central Bank. That means that these savings were used by the state parasite. The parasitic State that exists in Argentina that, with all our might, we are trying to disarm. That savings will now go to the private sector and that will be transformed, either into consumption or it will be transformed into investment. “That promotes growth.”
5) Milei and the “chainsaw” and public spending
“Chainsaw forever? Well, if it’s a branch, it’s about to break your eye. What do we do? (You have to cut it). Let’s go for this. Manuel Adorni’s phrase (‘The chainsaw is here to stay’) seems brilliant to me. I wish it had been mine. This is important. Our idea is to reduce public spending. As the economy grows and generates greater tax revenue, the idea is to cut, lower taxes and return it to the people.”
6) Milei and public works
“Public works in Argentina has been a corruption scandal. We do not believe that it is necessary that public works, large infrastructure works, have to be done by the State. We believe that the private sector can do it.”
7) Milei and public universities
“We are not going to close the university, we are not going to defund the university. That’s called the ‘straw man fallacy’. “Our opponents invented a lie.”
8) Milei and Cristina Kirchner’s speech in Quilmes
“What I can say about his other speeches is that yesterday’s (Saturday) was very poor. In general, in his speeches there was always a model, some clearer formal structure. This one directly lacks an organic way of presenting a topic. A notorious intellectual poverty, a drop in the quality of a speech that truly surprised me.”
9) Milei and the decline in inflation
“Every day it is more notable how inflation is falling in the case of wholesale prices. In December they grew 54%. That, annualized, gave 17,000%. Today, wholesale inflation was 5%. On the other hand, retail inflation started at 25%, and the last observation was 11%.”
10) Milei and economic activity
“While it is true that we are in the worst moment of economic activity, the reality is that the photos we are receiving are from prehistory. Because one begins to see that some indicators would be showing that a bottom is being reached. There are sectors that are expanding very clearly, such as mining, oil, gas, or agriculture.”
11) Milei and positive indicators
“The fiscal adjustment that we are carrying out, for the moment reaches 13 points of GDP. Our objective is 15. The objective is to completely close the fiscal, Treasury, quasi-fiscal and Central deficit. “That implies an increase in available savings that allows that to return to the private sector in the form of credit.”
12) Milei and personal image and opposition
“The level of image of myself and the management is very high, in line with what we had when we started. That has a translation: if we went to an election today, we would get 54% of the votes. Therefore, in a context of these characteristics, Cristina Kirchner needs to regroup all the troops and bring them all together, together with Massa, with Kicillof. That would be a bag of cats today.”
13) Milei and salaries and inflation
“The latest data show that salaries are outpacing inflation. With inflation falling, this recomposition is already beginning to take place. It was mild in the last month and now it is going to start to feel more sustainable.”
14) Milei and future expectations
“When you look at early numbers you see that they are all much better. In fact, there is a reason why people’s expectations are growing very strongly. In the latest Aresco survey, by Federico Aurelio, it is impressive how when we arrived only 20% of people believed that a year from now we would be better; and now that number is more than 50%.”
15) Milei and the fiscal deficit
“If I look at the Argentine history of the last 123 years, it had a deficit for 113. And Argentina is the richest country in the world. We received it when we were 140. Something bad happened there and the essential characteristic is the fiscal deficit. When you have a fiscal deficit, you have to finance it. What does the conventional con artist politician do? He finances it with debt, with the party present; That is, those who vote today transfer it to future generations who do not vote today. And how does that manifest itself later? Argentina today is the maximum defaulter serial. For this reason, we inherited a country risk of 2,900 basis points and that is why Argentina today has no credit. Today, credit that anywhere in the world is 98% of GDP on average, in Argentina is 4%.”
16) Milei and the payment to energy companies
“Cammesa payments will be made in the middle of the year, in June. Throughout the first five months of the year, we are generating many financial surpluses to compensate for what will be the increase in items due to the payment of Cammesa. and what the payment of the bonuses will do.”
17) Milei and the retirees
“The issue is this: retirees with the formula they came with would have lost two points of GDP this year. We are doing a recomposition that returns 1.6. That 0.4 that is lost is, strictly speaking, what it has been losing now. Now, for retirees, recovery is coming. That’s why I sent that DNU, so that the inflation adjustment can begin to run, to restore their income. At the end of the year, they ended up losing 2 points of GDP. “It’s not my fault that Congress is blocking things for me and that politics is an impeding machine.”
18) Milei and the “base law”
“It is an issue that Minister (Guillermo) Francos is dealing with very intensely. He has better details of how that comes about. Every time I speak with the minister I see him very optimistic. I am very satisfied with all the work of all my ministers, they are wonderful. If not, I would have already kicked them out.”
19) Milei on alleged questions to Pettovello and Santiago Caputo
“It is a lie that the opposition is trying to install. Why is Sandra Pettovello repeatedly questioned? I ask, are you aware that a lot of corruption cases (from the previous government) are coming out every day? Minister Pettovello is a machine for discovering acts of corruption, and she denounces them and takes them to court all the time.”
20) Milei and the march on Tuesday and the audits of the UBA
“What one has to understand is that the claim. That claim may be genuine, so to speak, but built on a lie. We never said that we were going to close the universities, we never said that we were going to take away funding. The only thing we ask, and what we seek, is that since public universities are being funded by taxpayers, the numbers have to be audited. And who doesn’t want to be audited? Thieves don’t want to be audited. This was Massa’s fear campaign. “It was the reissue of the campaign of fear.”
21) Milei and the DNU
“If they had come out earlier, there would have been less political tensions, or we would have avoided some atrocities that have been said in the Senate to justify the votes. The senators would have been more exposed to what they don’t like about the DNU. Because the DNU basically seeks to return individual freedoms to citizens and make market structures more competitive and put an end to the work of politics. It seems to me that the problem was with the last part.”
22) Milei and the appointment of Judge Ariel Lijo to the Court
“Who put Boudou in prison? (Ariel Lijo) It seems to me that when he goes into purist details… The reality is that if he starts doing that, he can find everything for everyone. What I believe is that you have to evaluate it in the context of where you are. The appointments of García Mansilla and Lijo go with a strategy that will lead to a Court that has a format that is more in line with respecting the Constitution.”
23) Milei and the journalists
“My problem is when they lie. In each of the cases in which they foist arguments on me, I find them lying and I expose them. Can journalists lie, slander and insult, who are a higher caste, who have rights over the rest of the inhabitants? They can say everything they want and you can’t answer? Because? Do journalists want to limit my right of expression? First point: we are all equal before the law. I can also express myself, I am not prohibited from expressing myself. Second: if someone criticizes me, I could respond to the criticism and give my vision of things, and it is part of the debate. For example, Mr. Jorge Lanata accused me of selling candidates. He asked for forgiveness. Now that the judge ruled that that was a lie… Did the journalists who said that atrocity ask for forgiveness?
