Argentina's president-elect wants public companies in private hands, with media first to go

abcnews.go.com:

Argentina’s president-elect has given the first signals of how he plans to shake up South America’s second-largest economy

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s right-wing president-elect gave the first indications Monday of how he plans to start shaking up South America’s second-largest economy: with a slew of privatizations.

Populist Javier Milei, a libertarian economist and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” won a presidential runoff election on Sunday with 55.7% of the vote. He said Monday that he would move quickly to privatize the country's state-owned media outlets and look to do the same with other public companies.

“Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector will be in the hands of the private sector,” Milei told Bueno Aires station Radio Mitre.

Experts immediately questioned how far Milei would get in fulfilling that vision without the support of Argentina's National Congress, where his party holds a relatively small share of seats. However, some analysts said his resounding election victory could give him leverage.

“The decisiveness of the victory — a doubt until yesterday — allows him to signal to all parties who is in control of the transition and the formation of the Cabinet,” said Mariano Machado, principal analyst for the Americas at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence firm.

In his radio comments, Milei described the public media outlets he wants to make private as amounting to “a covert ministry of propaganda.” He complained during the presidential race that the coverage of his campaign in state-run outlets was highly negative.

Milei also signaled that he intends to act on some of his most controversial ideas from his campaign for slashing the size of the state and reining in