Nine days before the first round of the presidential election, tension is rising in Argentina. President Alberto Fernandez accused the ultraliberal candidate and poll favorite Javier Milei of being at the origin of the new bout of fever experienced by the foreign exchange market at the beginning of the week, and filed a complaint against him.
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With our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Théo Conscience
Supporter of a “dollarization” of the Argentine economy, Javier Milei has never hidden his contempt for the peso, which has been suffering from chronic depreciation for years. On Monday, he again compared the national currency to garbage, and called on his compatriots to never save in pesos.
In the 36 hours that followed, the currency lost 15% of its value, to exceed the symbolic bar of 1,000 pesos to the dollar on the parallel market.
Believing that this new collapse was the “ direct consequence » of the statements of the ultraliberal candidate in the October 22 election, President Alberto Fernandez filed a complaint against him on Wednesday for “ incitement of public fear “. At a press conference, Javier Milei brushed aside these accusations, which according to him were intended to “proscribe” his political party.
If tensions on the foreign exchange market are a constant in the run-up to the elections in Argentina, some experts suspect Javier Milei of wanting to cause a collapse of the peso in order to facilitate the implementation of his dollarization plan. In September alone, prices jumped another 12.7% in Argentina, something never seen since the end of the last hyperinflation the country experienced in 1991.