President Alberto Fernández had called for the investigation in a complaint filed Wednesday, saying that the right-wing populist candidate was trying to scare the public and that his actions were “a severe affront to the democratic system.”
Prosecutor Franco Picardi on Friday referred a criminal case to a federal judge, going off Fernández’s accusation that claimed Milei and other candidates on his party’s ticket were inciting public fear — a charge that carries possible prison terms of up to six years. Federal Judge María Servini will later decide whether there is enough evidence to indict.
Milei is considered the frontrunner in the Oct. 22 election, after rocking Argentina’s political landscape when he unexpectedly received the most votes in August primaries that are widely seen as a massive poll of voter preferences.
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In his initial complaint, Fernández cited a radio interview Monday in which Milei recommended that Argentines not renew fixed rate deposits in the local currency, saying the “peso is the currency issued by the Argentine politician, and therefore it is not worth crap.”
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The so-called blue rate, as the informal exchange rate is known, reached as high as 1,050 pesos to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, a sharp increase from 880 pesos the previous week. It later moderated that increase and ended the week at around 980 pesos to the dollar.
Stringent capital controls mean that access to the official foreign exchange market, which currently prices a dollar at 367 pesos, is extremely limited.
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Polls show Milei is leading the race for presidency although he does not appear to have enough votes to win outright without a runoff next month.
Here is a Tucker Carlson interview with Javier Milei on 2023-09-15.
