Argentina’s presidential candidate Javier Milei, a key Bitcoin (BTC) supporter, is taking the lead in the country’s presidential election. The controversial candidate has just won the primary, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 14.
Highly controversial presidential candidate
At the time of writing, about 96% of all votes had been counted. Milei takes the lead in the elections with his libertarian and far-right party, La Libertad Avanza, with more than 30% of the vote.
He is followed by the conservative Together for Change party, which received around 28% of the vote. In third place is the left coalition “Union for the Homeland” with around 27% of the votes.
Milei is a controversial candidate to say the least. The far-right libertarian describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”. He denies climate change, wants to make it easier to buy firearms and believes that selling human organs should be legal.
He is also a Donald Trump fan and has received support from former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Javier Milei is a big Bitcoin fan
Milei also wants to completely abolish central banks. According to the presidential candidate, central bankers are scammers and are using inflation to cheat the Argentine people. He sees Bitcoin as a possible answer to central banks.
“The central bank is a scam, a mechanism by which politicians cheat good people with inflationary taxes. Bitcoin represents the return of money to its original creator: the private sector.”
So that seems to be going down well with the Argentinian people. This isn’t entirely unexpected considering the country is grappling with extreme inflation of more than 115% per year. Due to this inflation, the bitcoin price in the country has recently increased by more than 100%.
Still, Mei doesn’t appear to be planning to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender like it did in El Salvador. Rather, he seems to want to introduce the US dollar. However, there are fears his victory could lead to a big win later today sale in the markets due to its controversial plans.
The presidential elections in Argentina will take place on October 22nd. To win outright, a candidate must have at least 45% of the votes, otherwise there will be a second ballot in November. The probability of this currently seems high.
“This is the worst result for the markets,” says Daniel Kerner of the Eurasia Group
“Anti-establishment sentiment has finally arrived in Argentina. After 20 years of economic crisis, that is not surprising.”
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— Bloomberg (@business) August 14, 2023
