The far-right presidential candidate Javier Milei On Wednesday, he concluded his campaign for Sunday’s Argentine elections by promising that Argentina will no longer “fertile ground for corrupt politicians”.

“On Sunday we have the opportunity to have a homeland again, so that our soil will no longer be fertile land for corrupt politicians, but will become a land of opportunity for all who want to make progress based on their efforts.the Libertarian candidate said.

Dressed in a jacket and tie and this time without his classic chainsaw with him, with which he toured the country to symbolize the austerity he plans to implement if he wins the elections, Milei once again attacked the ‘caste of thieving politicians’, the ‘prebendary’. businessmen”. ” and to the “journalists and microphones”.

He gambled on a victory on Sunday in the first round, for which he would need 45% of the votesor 40% with a 10-point lead over the next candidate with the most votes.

Milei, 52, was the candidate with the most votes in the party’s August primaries and opinion polls show him as the favorite for Sunday.

During the closing ceremony in the packed Movistar Arena – with a capacity of 15,000 people – The audience wore giant dollar bills with Milei’s face or masks with her portrait.

Among them was Moisés Achee, 57 years old, who until now had broadly identified with the Peronism in power. “For years I voted with feeling (…) It was a forced vote. I didn’t think. And the truth is that I turned a blind eye to many aspects.”

And now? “Now Javier Milei has my vote, my admiration”, he explained. “He is a concrete, simple person. It’s not a package. “He doesn’t belong to any herd.”

At the event, the candidate drew applause when he defended private property and “social cooperation, where it is only possible to be successful by serving others with better quality goods at a better price.” His project aims, among other things, to dollarize the economy and reduce GDP by 15%.

An intellectual orgasm

The economist Alberto Benegas Lynch, a reference for liberalism in Argentina, opened the meeting by referring to the candidate’s project to “dynamize” the central bank: “What Javier Milei does for me is an intellectual orgasm.”

In other words, Sonia Acosta, a 60-year-old government official, also said it:What Javier convinced me most about this is the Central Bank, where boys wash money, money for their pockets.”.

“And why am I not afraid of dollarization? Because our weight is no longer useful,” she said, before continuing to dance drums wrapped in an Argentine flag. This currency needs to be changed. Come the dollar, come,” she told AFP, before continuing to dance to the beat of drums wrapped in an Argentine flag.

Several Venezuelan flags flew among the yellow flags of Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, which bore the motto “Long live freedom, dammit!”

“Milei represents that group of people who want to embrace the ideas of freedom, precisely at a historical moment when the left has taken such a position in Latin America and caused so much damage,” said Luis Sambrano, a 36-year-old Venezuelan who a group of compatriots was present.

He has been allowed to vote for two years, after emigrating to Argentina seven years ago.

Last week, Milei shook the markets by declaring that the peso “can’t be worth a damn” and advising savers to switch to the dollar, earning him a criminal complaint from the president, Alberto Fernández, and a response from private banks calling for “democratic accountability” in the face of bank run fears. (JO)