Oct. 27 (UPI) — Argentinian voters handed President Javier Milei’s libertarian party a landslide win in midterm elections in an endorsement of his program of radical government cuts and market reforms aimed at reversing the country’s economic decline.
Milei’s Freedom Advances party won more than 40% of the vote in Sunday’s election for the National Congress, almost doubling the number of seats it held in the Senate to 13 and 64 in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house.
The center-left Peronist coalition, Homeland Force, picked up 31.7% of the vote, giving them a slim three-seat majority.
The Freedom Party’s failure to win a majority leaves the Peronists the largest political force in both chambers but Milei hailed the result as a mandate to press on with his dismantling of Peronism, the leftist ideology that dominated Argentinian politics for more than seven decades.
The extra seats make that job much easier than during the first two years of his presidency, when his fiscal tightening and deregulation efforts were repeatedly vetoed by opposition lawmakers, and guarantee his slot as a presidential candidate in 2027.
“We must consolidate the path of reform we have embarked upon to turn Argentina’s history around once and for all to make Argentina great again,” Milei told supporters in a nod to the MAGA movement of U.S. President Donald Trump, who was poised to hand Argentina a $20 billion currency swap facility, provided Milei prevailed.
“BIG WIN in Argentina for Javier Milei, a wonderful Trump Endorsed Candidate! He’s making us all look good. Congratulations Javier!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
When Milei visited the White House on Oct. 14, Trump stated that U.S. backing, including an additional $20 billion loan provided by U.S. banks, depended on Milei’s success.
“If he wins, we’re staying with him, and if he doesn’t win, we’re gone.”
Trump has also floated plans to buy Argentinian beef as a way to help the country while lowering record beef prices at home — incurring the wrath of domestic ranchers in the process.
Milei, a former economist and a political unknown, swept into power in November 2023, promising to turn around a country plagued by decade-long economic stagnation and inflation of more than 200%.
Over the past two years, he’s cut the deficit by reducing spending on education, pensions, health and infrastructure, slashed subsidies and slimmed down the public sector by eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.
By tapping treasury reserves to artificially support the peso, he’s drastically reduced inflation, which fell to 31.8% in September.
However, his austerity package appeared to have taken a toll when his government received a drubbing in a key provincial election in September, with knock-on effects in financial markets which saw the result as a repudiation of Milei’s reforms.
