Argentinian President Javier Milei has announced a series of cuts to government spending including closing down the state’s news agency TELAM.
Milei also announced that Argentina will disband the State Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia & Racism (INADI), referring to it as the “thought police” and ban the government from buying ads from journalists.
Speaking in front of Congress in Milei said, “We cancelled official advertising in the media for a year, which will result in savings of more than 100 million pesos if we take as a parameter what was spent last year,”
Commenting on the closure of the Telam news agency he accused it of being a “propaganda agency” saying it had been used as such for decades.
The self confessed anarcho-capitalist said, “It is immoral” that in a poor country like Argentia governments “spend peoples’ money” to buy the favour of journalists.
Speaking of the need to “abandon the path of failure” when it came to economics, he called on former presidents and political rivals to meet next May to sign up to a new 10 principle economic code for Argentina called the “May Pact” in order to move towards “the path of prosperity”.
He described the 10 principles as “non-negotiable” fiscal balance, the “inviolability” of private property, and the reduction of public spending which he described as being a “chainsaw” approach.
GDP with tax reform that alleviates the burden on citizens, federal tax sharing and “ending forever the current extortionate model”, a modern labour reform that “promotes formal work”, are also included in the pact.
The ‘May Pact’ also outlines the need for pension reform that gives “sustainability” to the system and “respects those who contributed” while allowing those that so wish to avail of private schemes,
a commitment from the provinces to exploit natural resources of the country and
“a structural political reform that modifies the current system and realigns the interests of the representatives and the represented”.
Milei’s model for economic success also includes the opening of international trade in order to allow Argentina to return to “a protagonist” of the global market.
He said it was his hope that the implementation of these measures would improve economic activity at home and abroad while creating greater outcomes for the Argentinian people while reducing poverty.
He spoke of the savings made by “firing phantom public employees”, and cutting social services “to people who don’t need it,” saying this in particular had resulted in a saving of 43 billion pesos while the rate of child allowance, pregnancy allowance, and the “food card” had all been doubled.
He said that this adjustment had been done by shaving off from the public sector and not by the usual means of increasing the tax burden on the people of Argentina, 60% of whom he says are living below the poverty line.
To eruptions of applause and shouts of “Milei” and “Freedom”, the president spoke of an Argentina that was rich in natural resources, human resources, and a thirst for prosperity but had been held back by policies “that lead to failure”.
“Only a free society can progress,” speaking of a need to reignite the “spirit of the frontier” that established the country over 200 years ago, saying Argentina should be among the world leaders in technology, agriculture, maritime, energy, and commercial as a “productive power”.
“This is the country I dream of,” said Milei.
He said high taxes were the cause of high poverty rates and a stagnation of economic activity.
He pledged to “clean up the balance sheet of the Central Bank” and to tackle the “snake’s egg” of the country’s financial deficit.
The president said that he and his political allies had asked for the people’s votes not out of a desire for power, but out of a desire to return power to the people of Argentina saying that widespread political corruption in the country which he said encompassed the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary meant that the government amounted to little more than a “criminal organisation”.
He said this had been supported by a media that “lives off official guidelines” where journalists as “opinion makers” carefully choose who to “accuse” and who to support.
He described the system hitherto as “intrinsically unjust” and ‘morally bankrupt’.