The ultra-liberal president of Argentina Javier Millay said yesterday Friday, during his first State of the Nation address, determined to press ahead with his reforms “with or without political support”, warning parliament that he was ready “for a clash”.

At the same time, he asked the Argentinians to show “patience and trust” to deregulation measures and fiscal austerity.

“It still takes time before we can reap the fruits of economic consolidation and reforms (…) but for the first time in history we are attacking the root of the problem. For this reason, I ask you for patience and trust”, emphasized Miley.

“It will be worth your efforts,” assured the citizens of Argentina’s president, whose government has proceeded in less than three months to devalue the national currency by more than 50%, to liberalize prices, to deregulate the market and drastic budget cuts.

Millay warned lawmakers, who in February handed him his first defeat by rejecting some of his reforms, that “we will change the country once and for all (…) with or without the support of political leaders, with all legal means” available to the executive branch.

The Argentine president also reminded the parliamentarians — whom in recent weeks he has accused of being “corrupt” and “symbols of the political caste” — that he has the tools, whether through decrees, bills or regulatory changes, to “fight the fiscal deficit, the mother of battles for us.”

“If you seek conflict, you will have conflict,” he stressed.

But Millay reached out to the political class – provincial governors, party chiefs, former presidents – to forge “a new social contract” based on ten ultra-liberal principles, including “non-negotiable” fiscal balance, “ inviolable’ private property and the reduction of public expenditure to the ‘historic’ level of 25% of GDP.

Telam news agency closes

At the same time, Mr Javier Millay announced yesterday Friday the closure of the country’s state news agency, the Telamcalling it a “propaganda agency” of former President Christina Kirchner.

“We will close the Telam agency, which in recent decades has served as a Kirchner propaganda agency,” Millay said in a speech to parliament, without elaborating.

In February the Miley government indicated that it intended to “modify the organizational and operational structure” of all state media, including Telam as well as state radio and television.

Telam was founded in 1945 and has more than 700 employees. Every day it transmits about 500 internal news telegrams, 200 photos, videos and radio content.

According to its website, Telam “is the only agency in the country with a network of correspondents in all the provinces of Argentina and many cooperation agreements with international agencies.”

As he also mentions, there have been attempts to shut down Telam under presidents Carlos Menem, Fernando de la Rua and Mauricio Macri. In 2018 restructuring had led to 357 redundancies, some of which were subsequently annulled by the judiciary.

50% have a positive view of Miley

Millay had scheduled his speech to parliament at 9:00 p.m. in the eveningprime time so “as many Argentinians as possible can hear the president after work,” as his office explained.

During his speech, he referred at length to 20 years of “impoverishing” government policies, calling them “morally bankrupt and profoundly unjust” and claiming that “a political caste” had benefited from them.

He announced his “anti-caste” plan, which includes various provisions such as imposing term limits on union leaders, reducing parliamentary assistants, abolishing privileges of former presidents.

At the same time, he noted that he will draw up a bill to prosecute anyone – president, finance minister or parliamentarian – who signs the financing of the budget deficit by printing money.

Millay, who has already achieved some of his goals with Argentina recording a monthly budget surplus in January for the first time in 12 years, is relieved by the polls. Despite the shock to Argentinians’ purchasing power, about 50% have a positive view of the president, not far below the 56% who voted for him in the election.