MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei ready to take over in case of President's early departure from office

“We have to be prepared for any scenario,” the Economist Milei argued

Libertarian Congressman Javier Milei, who was the most-voted candidate in Sunday's Open, Mandatory, and Simultaneous Primary (PASO) elections, said he was ready to take over the helm at Casa Rosada at once should President Alberto Fernández and his constitutional successors step down ahead of the Dec. 10 schedule.

“If the Government does not finish the administration, I am in a position to take office tomorrow,” Milei said in a TV interview. He also insisted that a deeper crisis was “just around the corner” and that, with his performance on Sunday, he might win the presidency in the Oct. 22 first round. “We have to be prepared for any scenario,” the Economist Milei argued.

The Libertarian candidate said his victory would be the solution to end Kirchnerism and explained that elements of the 1975, 1989, and 2001 crises were also present in the current economic situation and an early departure by Fernández was not to be ruled out.

Milei also said after his victory that should he reach Casa Rosada he would “plebiscite” the pregnancy termination law because it is “a murderous policy.”

“My position is based on a philosophical, biological, and mathematical question,” he stressed. Abortion is “against the right to life,” he also argued.

“If Argentines believe in the murder of a defenseless human in the mother's womb, it will be seen,” he highlighted. “How can it be an earned right to kill a human being?”

Law 27,610, passed in December 2020, regulates access to the voluntary and legal termination of pregnancy and post-abortion care up to and including the fourteenth (14) week, and also when the pregnancy is the result of rape or in case of life risk for the mother.

Milei also confirmed Tuesday that he had been contacted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a potential future president. “They called me from the IMF, they contacted my sister to have a meeting. We are seeing how to deal with it”.

“The Fund regularly and routinely contacts a wide range of political and economic references, which also include countries with IMF programs. These contacts are important for understanding the views and opinions of the Fund and its members on the overall objectives and key policies of IMF-supported programs,” the IMF said through a spokesperson.

The IMF also confirmed similar contacts with Patricia Bullrich of Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio - JxC)

Milei's unexpected victory prompted a wave of euphoria among far-right leaders such as former Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast; Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (son of former President Jair Bolsonaro); Vox's Santiago Abascal (Spain); and Brothers of Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.