He has vowed there will be no "half-measures" as he confronts decades of overspending, debt and convoluted currency controls in Latin America's third-largest economy.
"I swear to God and country ... to carry out with loyalty and patriotism the position of president of the Argentine nation," he said as he took the oath of office. Meanwhile, thousands of his supporters lined the streets in front of the Congress in Buenos Aires, waving the blue and white flag of the country and chanting Milei's rallying cry of "Freedom!"
After the swearing-in ceremony, Milei promised a new era for the country, but warned of painful austerity measures and an economic crisis that will "get worse" before it gets better. "Today begins a new era in Argentina," he said, highlighting that "no government has received a worse inheritance than what we are receiving."
"The bottom line is that there is no alternative to austerity and there is no alternative to shock treatment," Milei warned, saying his predecessors had left the country without funds and on a path to hyperinflation.
