With
strong criticism
of what he called
the "analogue" red circle
, which included political leaders, businessmen and economists who supposedly "do not see" the change underway,
Javier Milei
defended the economic model, in which he included a "plan of stabilization" to defeat inflation, rejected that it is planned to increase the rate of devaluation and confirmed that this week
there will be thousands of layoffs of national state employees.
The head of state was the last guest speaker at the "IEFA Latam Forum" that took place this Tuesday at the Four Seasons hotel.
He arrived accompanied by his sister
Karina
and spokesman
Manuel Adorni.
He was received with
moderate
applause by an audience made up mostly of energy business executives from different countries.
The event was moderated by journalist
Cristina Pérez
, partner of Minister Luis Petri (Defense), who had anticipated the arrival of a "special guest" to close the day.
During a speech of almost 50 minutes, Milei showed off his profession as an economist with many passages of technical language and references to academics such as
Friedrich Hayek or Keynes
;
She questioned the latter in a joking tone, which sparked laughter from some of those present.
"She dedicated herself to finance and went bankrupt like a rat. She had to go ask her father for the 'spittoon',
who was a friend of Marshall (the one from the post-war European assistance plan)," she lashed out. she.
At all times, the head of state defended the reforms underway that would seek to end an unbalanced economy "due to having
lived for more than 20 years under a savage populist regime"
that, in his opinion
,
"has led to the destruction of productivity and that is why we are in an absolutely miserable situation.
At the beginning, he again detailed the inheritance received from Kirchnerism but argued that "we were almost always prepared to receive this 'hot potato'. If we had not taken quick measures we would have been blown up several times," when defending the shock policies implemented since last December...
One of the event's organizers,
Frank Holder
,
a former CIA agent
turned businessman, earlier praised Milei's reforms.
José Luis
Manzano was one of her main sponsors.
The President set as conditions to eliminate these restrictions,
"the sanitation of the Central Bank and a financial reform" that would aim to move towards a "free banking" system
.
He maintained that once "the free exchange rate" was adopted, it would be combined with "currency competition."
It was in this framework, in which the president
denied that he was going to promote a greater depreciation of the peso.
Focusing on the inflationary slowdown, he said that "I find it very funny those who ask to change the pace of the devaluation rate. Today the free exchange rate does not show a gap" with respect to the rest of the contributions influenced by the Country tax. .
"If the market doesn't do it (by devaluing) why am I going to do it," he asked himself
and accused the "
crude economists"
of trying to "determine the price of something," in this case, the value of the currency.
Although he again attacked the "politics" that prevent him from approving the reforms in Congress,
he focused his anger on what he called the "analog" red circle,
which he described as a sector that does not adapt to social and economic changes.
He included the opposition leaders of the "helicopter club", especially those referenced in Kirchnerism, but he also related the supposed rejection "of change" to the
Clarín Group
to which he dealt veiled criticism.
"There is a saying that says that where there is a Kirchnerist kicking is where a job was cut and the non-Kirchnerists too. Otherwise let's look at some other important group...angry because Elon Musk arrived"
and his satellite internet company , he alleged.
He valued the management of Minister
Sandra Pettovello
for having put an end to "the intermediation" of the social plans and recalled that "we set up a complaints line for which we received about 300 thousand complaints and there are 18 thousand open cases" against piqueteros leaders.
Despite the criticism,
he defended the elimination of "public works" and other aspects of his adjustment plan,
which, he admitted,
has “a lot of blender and a lot of chainsaw”
: he indicated that “we have already eliminated 50,000 public positions and now we are going to eliminate 20 thousand more, until we reach 70 thousand.”
Those numbers
are not real
according to his own government officials.
(
see page 4
).
At the end he expressed hope in the success of his model and disclosed survey results that showed that 70% of those consulted, despite being worse off financially than before his inauguration, recognized that "we are going to defeat inflation."
In this sense,
he assured that "people have hope even though they are having a bad time today, they realized populism does not lead anywhere
" and he was excited about winning more seats in 2025 "to make the 3,000 reforms that are missing." ".
And he closed with that "Argentines already know we are going to be better, because that future is liberal."
This time, there was no rallying cry—"Long live fucking freedom"—and he was dismissed to the loudest applause of the night.
Before the head of state, Neuquén governor
Rolando Figueroa,
who has the "pearl" of the sector, Vaca Muerta, spoke on a panel on energy.
That segment was moderated by
Manzano
, a former sword of Menemism converted into a mining and media businessman.
In this business forum, there were few leaders from politics.
Representative
Lilia Lemoine
was present , but also the former Minister of Science,
Lino Barañao
, who was critical of the chainsaw used in Conicet.
"Layoffs are made without criteria and there are already young people thinking about emigrating," he highlighted.