An Argentine politician, who supports Bitcoin (BTC) and calls for the abolition of his country’s central bank, is leading the country’s presidential open primary election.
With more than 90% of the votes counted, the libertarian pro-Bitcoin candidate Javier Milei leads with almost 32%. He is followed by the conservative Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio) party, with just under 30%, according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile, the left-wing coalition Union for the Homeland (Unión por la Patria) — the group of the incumbent government — came third with more than 28.5% of the vote.
Libertarian and pro-#bitcoin The candidate, Javier Milei, leads the Argentinian primary election. pic.twitter.com/65XQeIVJth
– Peter McCormack☠️ (@PeterMcCormack) August 14, 2023
Milei created and led the Liberty Advances (La Libertad Avanza) coalition whose views have been described as somewhere between libertarian and far-right.
Milei called himself an anarcho-capitalist and rallied for Argentina’s central bank to be abolished – calling it a scam, saying the sale of human organs should be legal and denying the existence of global warming.
Related: Argentina’s agency has opened an investigation into Worldcoin’s biometric data
He said that Bitcoin is a reaction against “scammers in the central bank” and claimed that legal tender allows politicians to scam Argentines with inflation.
Javier Milei is running for President of Argentina.
He seems to understand money, and that inflation is an unfair mechanism that enriches the elite over the people and slowly robs the people of their means to survive. pic.twitter.com/tj0KEztUzI
— Alex Stanczyk ∞/21m (@alexstanczyk) January 5, 2023
Such rhetoric has clearly proven popular with voters in Argentina, which is facing an annual inflation rate of 116% – the worst in more than three decades, adding to the country’s cost of living crisis. .
Argentina’s general presidential election will be held on October 22, a candidate must win at least 45% of the vote to win the presidency or a final runoff vote will be triggered to take place in November.
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