MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei claims that Massa's coughing choir failed to destabilize him

Milei warned his followers that there were four days ahead “to convince those who are still undecided”

Argentine Libertarian Congressman Javier Milei cried early Monday that a “choir of coughers” had led to him losing his temper during Sunday's presidential debate with Economy Minister Sergio Massa, which he clearly lost.

He also hinted it was all part of Massa's strategy to portray him “as someone unbalanced and who is not in conditions to govern” but which - in his view - “did not succeed.”

This nuisance aside, Milei said he felt “very comfortable” throughout the debate and gained confidence as time passed by. “I felt very good [...] I got stronger and we finished very well,” he pointed out in a radio interview.

Milei said he was aware that Massa would “try to make him do things” by getting him “out of his mind.”

“That was intensely sought, he was very aggressive. He had very offensive phrases towards me,” he added.

The “whole apparatus plays in favor of Massa,” Milei went on. “On his team, he had a set of psychologists who were looking for points with which to attack me.”

Massa's supporters were sitting “in front of me and, every time I had to speak, they coughed, it was a coughing choir,” Milei argued. “He was looking for an emotional overflow from me and he did not succeed.”

In the wee hours of Monday, Milei warned his followers that there were four days ahead “to convince those who are still undecided.”

At 4.30 am he posted on X that the country was facing “a very clear decision” between keeping the present course of action undertaken by “a lying, cynical, coached, arrogant and arrogant politician who believes that the State belongs to him; and who wants to continue doing the same things that have been failing for decades and that only benefit the friends in power” or try “something different” by endorsing “a group of citizens who got into the filth of politics to change this decadent reality for which Minister Massa is responsible.”

The lawmaker also told a Buenos Aires broadcaster Monday morning in a radio interview that Argentina “has to do something urgent given the imbalance coming in December” concerning the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the impending hyperinflation that - so he foresees - will erupt between February and March 2024. He also admitted his political force was holding “informal conversations with the IMF so that it is aware of our adjustment program and so that, when the time comes, they are ready to see what we are doing.”