“We can continue with our reform agenda! We are going to make Argentina great! Viva la libertad carajo! (Long live freedom, damn it!). Argentinian President Javier Milei (53) spoke exuberantly to his supporters on Sunday after the parliamentary elections, where his party La Libertad Avanza became the big winner.
The ultra-right Milei managed to win more than 40 percent of the votes in these ‘Argentine midterms’. The opposition, the left-Peronist bloc Fuerza Patria, came second with 24 percent.
These midterm elections involved 127 of the 257 seats in the House of Representatives and 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate. According to government figures, Milei increased from 37 seats to 93 seats in the House of Representatives and from 7 to 20 seats in the Senate.
Although his party does not have a majority and will therefore have to forge coalitions with other parties, this win will allow him to implement legislation more quickly and continue the ‘shock therapy’ with which he has wanted to reform the Argentine economy since he took office.
Crucial test case
These elections were crucial for Milei, because it was a test case whether his political and economic policies would still find support among the Argentines. During local elections last month, he lost significantly in Buenos Aires, the largest and most important region in the country.
In addition, in the run-up to these elections, a series of corruption scandals occurred within Milei’s party, in which his very influential sister Karina was also involved.
Since taking office in 2023, Milei – who describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist – has managed to significantly reduce the enormous inflation of 300 percent, which he inherited after years of left-Peronist policy, to 31 percent.
Due to a rigorous policy of ‘cutting’ government expenditure, depicted by Milei with a brandishing chainsaw, there was a surplus on the government’s balance of payments for the first time. But the abolition of subsidies and the dismissal of thousands of civil servants increased poverty among Argentinians and caused the value of the peso to decline further in recent times.
Help from the White House
The fact that Milei nevertheless made large gains could partly be due to the man who came to his aid recently: American President Trump. After injecting $20 billion into the Argentine economy by buying pesos for this amount through a so-called ‘swap line’, Trump promised support of another $20 billion.
On the condition that Milei would score well in these elections. “If he doesn’t win, we won’t be generous,” Trump told reporters last week after Milei’s visit to the White House.
Milei can breathe a sigh of relief now that he will most likely keep Trump’s support. Argentina under Milei is also an important ally for Trump and the United States. Milei is one of the few leaders on the continent who has so emphatically aligned himself with Trump’s MAGA movement.
Moreover, Milei is important to Trump in helping to strengthen American influence in the region, especially now that China is gaining an increasingly stronger position in Latin America. This result is also expected to give investors more confidence in the country and the value of the peso to rise.
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