Buenos Aires Herald 
Four associations of Argentine banks released a joint communiqué in which they criticized libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei for “unnecessarily creating uncertainty and anguish in many people.”
At least since Friday, Milei has been making incendiary remarks against the national currency. Over Monday and Tuesday, the informal exchange rate known as the blue dollar jumped by 25%.
“Candidates should avoid making unfounded statements that instill uncertainty in people and generate market volatility,” the bankers said. “Advising not to renew fixed-term deposits only creates worry in a sector of the population.”
This was in reference to Milei advising those who have made fixed deposits in pesos not to renew them if they want to save money in an interview on Radio Mitre on Monday morning, with the blue dollar rising steeply in response. On Friday, Milei said that “the higher [the blue dollar] is, the better, because dollarizing will be easier,” as one of his flagship proposals is abolishing the peso and adopting the US dollar as the national currency.
Tuesday’s communiqué was signed by four associations that jointly represent all major banks in the country, and did not mention Milei by name. It was titled “Democratic Responsibility.”
“We urge the candidates to go through the last stretch of the electoral campaign with the responsibility, professionalism, and vocation of service that the role to which they aspire requires,” they concluded. “This is the best way to strengthen democracy and achieve the well-being of the Argentine people.”
On Monday, the Central Bank released a press communiqué following Milei’s statements saying that its monetary policy aims to maintain the purchase power of savings by the rate added to fixed-rate deposits. “The Argentine’s savings deposited in the financial system are shielded by a deposit insurance and by the Central Banks role, which acts as a last resort creditor.”
On Tuesday, economist and Central Bank directory member Agustín D’Attellis called Milei’s statements “irresponsible.”
“He cares more about polarizing with Massa than being responsible,” he told the Herald.
Banco Nación directory member and UxP national deputy candidate Julia Strada said that Milei is “encouraging the financial system to go into a crisis situation” to emulate 2001, the year in which Argentina’s worst social, political and economic crisis exploded. Strada added, during an interview with AM 750 radio station, that that is not possible because the Argentine financial system is much more solid than it was 20 years ago.
The Bank Association, the main bank workers union, said that Milei’s statements are a form of “electoral terrorism” in a press release published on Tuesday. “[Milei] clearly wants to create unease in society, and deliberately create a huge financial crisis.”
Cross-party condemnation
The government has been consistently blaming Milei for triggering “run on the currency” and his comments have drawn criticism from other political sectors.
On Monday, Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa criticized Milei for advising people to stop renewing fixed deposits in pesos. “When I see candidates who are capable of setting a house on fire for a vote, I get worried,” Massa said during the presentation of a book written by former Argentine ambassador in Brazil Daniel Scioli.
Juntos por el Cambio presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich held both Milei and Massa responsible for the dire economic situation. “Between Massa’s pyromania eading us to hyperinflation and the irresponsibility of Milei, who encourages a run on the currency, Argentines are anxious about the present and the future,” she said in a post in X (formerly Twitter).
Deputy and economist Martín Tetaz, also from Juntos por el Cambio, questioned Milei’s “inflammatory statements” that “encourage the collapse in the demand for money”.
“Milei knows that Congress will never vote for a dollarization because it is very bad for Argentina, and so he is looking for it to happen in fact”, said Tetaz
Agustín Rossi, the vice presidential candidate of the ruling coalition Unión por la Patria (UxP), said that Milei is a rogue who “promotes a scenario of higher instability to achieve his goals.”
“I don’t think he is a crazy man on the loose […] he sees a complicated electoral situation and thinks a more unstable scenario is more favorable to a candidate like him,” Rossi told Radio Delta on Tuesday. “He cares more about his dogs than Argentine citizens.”
