Argentina’s President Javier Milei has been forced to leave a campaign rally in Lomas de Zamora, a suburb of Buenos Aires, after protesters pelted his vehicle with small rocks, bottles and other objects.
On Wednesday, Milei and members of his libertarian party, La Libertad Avanza, held a rally for voters ahead of two key upcoming elections.
On September 7, the province of Buenos Aires is expected to hold local races. And on October 26, the country faces midterm elections, which will see half of the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies up for grabs, as well as a third of the Senate.
The elections are seen as major tests for Milei as he reaches the midpoint of his four-year term as president.
But Milei, whose dark-horse election victory in 2023 upset Argentina’s political establishment, has faced backlash for the dramatic “shock treatment” he has attempted to undertake with the country’s economy.
His administration has also been rocked by a bribery scandal involving his sister, Karina Milei.
As Milei and Karina stood on the bed of an open pick-up truck on Wednesday, waving to supporters and signing autographs, witnesses reported seeing objects flying in their direction as protesters attempted to approach the vehicle.
Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni shared a picture on the social media platform X, with a circle highlighting what appeared to be a rock thrown in the president’s direction.
“They could have killed anyone,” Adorni said of the protesters. “They don’t care about human life, and they’ll care even less about the country. The end.”
Video captured the pick-up truck accelerating to escape the crowd. One protester held aloft a mock suitcase with Karina Milei’s face on it and dollar bills sticking out in odd places. Others chanted, “Out with Milei!”
The news agency AFP reported that one Milei supporter had to be transported by ambulance for medical care after clashes with protesters resulted in rib injuries. But no officials in the Milei pick-up truck were injured.
Milei himself used the incident to campaign on social media against “Kirchnerism”, a left-wing political movement.
“The empty-headed nutters throwing rocks resorted to violence again,” he wrote in one post. “On September 7 and October 26, let’s say at the polls: KIRCHNERISM NEVER AGAIN.”
In another, Milei put the choice more starkly: “Civilisation or barbarity.”
A demonstrator holds a mock suitcase with fake dollar bills in reference to a corruption scandal involving the president’s sister, Karina Milei [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]
Milei has taken dramatic action to regulate Argentina’s spiralling inflation, but his austerity campaign has included cuts to social safety-net services, widespread government layoffs and sweeping deregulation.
He famously campaigned with a chainsaw to symbolise his approach to government bureaucracy. But critics warn that his efforts have left Argentina’s poorest citizens more vulnerable. While official statistics indicate inflation has dropped, unemployment and poverty have risen.
The bribery allegations have heightened the backlash against his administration.
Karina Milei occupies a high-level position in Milei’s government, as a general secretary to the president.
But audio recordings have captured Diego Spagnuolo, the head of the National Disability Agency and a close ally of Milei, claiming that Karina took a cut from government contracts intended to help those with disabilities.
Milei has since fired Spagnuolo, and in his public appearances on Wednesday, he repudiated the recordings.
“Everything he says is a lie,” Milei told reporters in Lomas de Zamora. “We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied.”
Milei put on a united front with his sister at Wednesday’s rally, appearing side by side with her in the pick-up truck.
