La Libertad Avanza presidential candidate Javier Milei praised his former rival Patricia Bullrich on Wednesday as the duo briefly appeared on television together, just hours after the opposition leader announced she will support the libertarian outsider in next month's presidential run-off.
Days after he was slamming her as another member of the "political caste" he hates so much, Milei said the PRO party leader – who finished third in last Sunday's presidential election – had made an "act of greatness" in declaring her support publicly.
"This is the clearest election in the last 40 years," said the libertarian deputy, who faces Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the November 19 showdown.
During an interview conducted as the PRO party leader watched on from across the studio, Milei, 53, lashed out at his opponent, explained that he and Bullrich had both apologised to each other for comments on the campaign trail ("excesses," he described them as) and revealed details of a meeting on Tuesday brokered by former president Mauricio Macri at which he clinched Bullrich's support.
"Yesterday we had a meeting with President [Mauricio] Macri and Dr. [Patricia] Bullrich. We apologised to each other for what happened in the campaign. We both did it sincerely. And as a result of that we accepted each other's apologies," Milei told TN news channel journalists Marcelo Bonelli and Edgardo Alfano.
"We have managed to rebuild the bond we had. Sometimes the logic of the campaign leads to some excesses and it seems to me that it is good people to recognise these things," he continued.
"Today she made an announcement that shows her intellectual honesty. She campaigned for change," declared Milei.
"The reality is that today, after Sunday's elections, two-thirds of the Argentine population chose to change. And one of those alternatives for change is in the ballot, which is ours. In an act of greatness on the part of Ms Bullrich, she decided to support the option for change that received the most votes, which is the one that is competing."
Milei considered that "this is the clearest election in the last 40 years", since "the choice is between the decadent continuity that Argentina is going through or a truly important and significant change towards the ideas of freedom."
On his relationship with Bullrich, the libertarian said they had "differences" but that they both faced "populism, decadence, inflation, corruption" and that "we don't want that country."
Milei recalled that some time ago he had offered "Mauricio Macri and Bullrich to put together a new coalition, coherent with the ideas of liberty, through which, in an internal election, whoever won would govern and whoever lost would accompany them."
"I maintained that this alliance would win in the first round," said the libertarian leader, who took just under 30 percent of the presidential vote.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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