Impoverishment for the Many, Riches for the Few

When the results of the recent US election were announced, Argentina’s President Javier Milei and his team cracked open the champagne. As far as they’re concerned, Donald Trump’s re-election will provide them with a powerful tailwind.

Like Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Milei is a darling of the Atlas Network, an international umbrella organization that encompasses a multi-billion-dollar slew of far-right and libertarian think tanks. When he celebrates his first year in office on 10 December, the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” will certainly be able to revel in the successes of his “chainsaw politics”. After all, there can be no doubt that Argentina’s “anti-state” head of state has made headway on the road to regime change in the country.

Milei’s remodelling of the state is being carried out on three levels — political, economic, and social — with both the state and the political party system currently undergoing a process of transformation. Milei’s La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances) is scarcely more than a splinter party, with feeble structures, very few elected representatives, and no representatives serving as governors or mayors in major cities. Yet despite this, the restructuring of the state in aid of maximizing profits for transnational corporations and venture capital has steadily progressed — at the expense of what little was left of the country’s already debilitated system of social provisions.

Exploding Poverty

After encountering some difficulties at the outset, Milei was ultimately able to secure majorities in both chambers of parliament in order to pursue many of his planned projects. The conservative Republican Proposal (PRO) party, led by former president Mauricio Macri, is actively participating in redistributing wealth according to the inverted Robin Hood principle, and, despite some initial reservations, the majority of the liberal Radical Civic Union (UCR) party has now also joined forces with the government. There are even a number of Peronists who say they are “willing to negotiate”.

With only 99 and 5 (out of 257) deputies in the lower house and only 33 of 72 senators in the upper house, the opposition factions of the Peronist Unión por la Patria (Union for the Homeland, UxP) and the small Trotskyist left-wing bloc The Workers’ Left Front – Unity (FIT-U) were unable to prevent the restructuring. The president was granted sweeping powers that have enabled him, for example, to suspend existing environmental regulations in the mining sector to the benefit of international investors.

While this policy has led to growing prosperity for a handful of entrepreneurs and financial speculators, the overwhelming majority of the population now finds itself much worse off. Although the national inflation rate has declined to single digits in recent months, the havoc wreaked by the rate at which prices increased during the first few months of Milei’s presidency has been devastating. Even people who were previously members of Argentina’s middle class are now struggling to keep their heads above water.

The number of people in the country currently living below the poverty line has risen to 25 million — of a national population of almost 48 million. In other words: the majority of Argentinians currently live in poverty, a sad reality that is evidenced by the long queues in front of soup kitchens. Since Milei discontinued government funding for food programmes for the poor in one of his first official actions as president, social organizations and church institutions have now been forced to shoulder the responsibility on their own. But their resources are nowhere near sufficient — there are now a million children in the country who do not receive regular meals.

Not a week goes by without visible protests, nor a month without a mass demonstration against the cuts and the curtailing of social and political rights.

The economic data likewise indicates a downwards trend: Argentina is currently in a deep recession. More than 30,000 public servants have already been dismissed, and despite a wave of privatizations of public property, tens of thousands of jobs have also been lost in the private sector. Consumer spending has plummeted, with retailers recording fewer sales with every passing month.

People are even being forced to cut costs on food spending, purchasing fewer groceries: a studycommissioned by the Buenos Aires office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the human rights organization CELS revealed that sales of beverages were down by 26 percent, milk by 12 percent, meat by 9 percent, and fruit and vegetables by 7 percent each. In the first seven months of this year alone, the price of staple foods have more than doubled (up 111 percent). Moreover, due to reductions in government subsidies, the costs of public transport, electricity, gas, and water have skyrocketed. And while the rental market has been stimulated thanks to the scrapping of rent controls and tenant-friendly regulations, this has only served to benefit those who pay high rents in US dollars and are willing to enter into fixed-term tenancies.

Despite the continually mounting misery, approval ratings for Milei remain at a high. Polls reveal that roughly 50 percent of respondents support him — a phenomenon that may at least in part be attributed to the efficacy of fake news and disinformation campaigns on social media networks. What seems more pivotal is the fact that, in the wake of the economic failure of the previous two governments under conservative Mauricio Macri (2015–2019) and Peronists Alberto and Cristina Fernandez (2019–2023), many (especially younger) Argentinians still remain hopeful that their aspirations for personal prosperity will ultimately be realized under Milei.

One component of Milei’s radical restructuring of the state involves a major assault on the public university system and the cultural sector, which are being stripped of funding. Furthermore, the president has dissolved the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity and has withdrawn funding from a number of programmes that offer counselling and support services to women. The government is even attempting to shift the societal consensus regarding the historic crimes of the country’s military dictatorship (1976–1983) and is withdrawing support for NGOs that are active in this field.

Staunchly Right-Wing Foreign Policy

When it comes to foreign policy, Milei is also forging his own path. His decision to break with the traditionally pro-Russian stance of previous governments and aggressively side with Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been well received in the US and EU. In the conflict in the Middle East, on the other hand, he has expressed his support for Benjamin Netanyahu and strongly condemned any criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war.

On the whole, the president’s approach to foreign policy is very much aligned with that of his extreme right-wing allies. This will likely be reinforced when Trump assumes office. Back in September, Milei railed against the United Nations’ “Pact for the Future” at the UN General Assembly and declared climate change a “left-wing invention” that was using “more taxes to finance the socialist agenda”.

At the end of October, the UN vote on the Cuba embargo, in which Argentina sided with the vast majority of the international community in voting against it, sparked a furore in the government camp. The president was so enraged that he promptly dismissed his Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino. He also ordered that Mondino’s ministry be purged of what he called “promoters of anti-freedom agendas” in order to ensure that the diplomatic body would adhere unreservedly to the values of his government in future. In subsequent UN votes, Argentina could be seen expressing opposition to Indigenous rights and even became the sole country to vote against a UN resolution on violence against women (although this vote was subsequently amended).

Repression and Opposition

In terms of domestic policy, Milei has undertaken something of a rearmament thanks to the “security protocols” introduced by his conservative Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich. The new regulations were originally intended to combat street blockades, but are now also increasingly being used to criminalize peaceful protests, with rubber bullets even being deployed against members of the press and elderly protestors. Milei has also expanded the powers of the country’s intelligence agency, and the number of police operations targeting union members and other activists have increased. Lastly, the newly formed right-wing citizens’ militia Las Fuerzas del Cielo (The Forces of Heaven) presented itself to the public as the “military arm” of the Argentinian government.

The objective of such projects is to crush the resistance of a civil society that has traditionally been incredibly well-organized. So far, however, the government has failed to do so. Not a week goes by without visible protests, nor a month without a mass demonstration against the cuts and the curtailing of social and political rights. Two general strikes have already been launched against the government.

One thing is certain: if the opposition intends to mount a successful challenge to Milei and his allies in the upcoming parliamentary elections, these questions of leadership and strategy will have to be resolved.

Encouragingly, there are indications that the country’s political Left may be overcoming its internal divisions. Particularly noteworthy here is the reunification of the CTA trade union federation (split over its position on Peronism). However, it would appear that there is a long way to go before a strategic link is forged between the disparate protests and campaigns.

Politically speaking, the Peronist Unión por la Patria brings together most of the country’s left-wing forces, which coexist in a broad alliance that also includes conservatives. However, the critical public perspective considers this coalition too passive — and not without reason, given that several influential Peronists believe that Milei should be allowed to expose his true colours through his policies, and that the left can simply strike back at some point in the future.

What’s more, there is also disagreement in terms of who should assume the leadership of the coalition in future. Will the liberal former Minister of Economy and failed presidential candidate Sergio Massa remain in charge? Or will erstwhile President Cristina Kirchner reassume her leadership position despite ongoing legal proceedings? The popular Governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicilof, and — on the left of the political spectrum — the former spokesman of the MTE movement for informally employed workers, Juan Grabois, have emerged as new faces on the scene.

The radical left-wing alliance FIT-U also has a crucial role to play within the opposition, although their rift with the left wing of Peronism still seems insurmountable.

One thing is certain: if the opposition intends to mount a successful challenge to Milei and his allies in the upcoming parliamentary elections, these questions of leadership and strategy will have to be resolved. Even if the elections are not due to take place for another year, time is already running out.

Translated by Louise Pain and Sam Langer for Gegensatz Translation Collective.