Argentina: Milei Rocking and Rolling As The Election Approaches

Rocking ‘n’ Rolling: As Elections Approach, Argentina’s President Is Looking For a Miracle Argentina Argentine President Javier Milei headlined a rock concert for 15,000 supporters a few weeks ago, using his Presidential Band to belt out Argentine rock classics as giant screens flashed apocalyptic imagery and fans cheered. The concert was ostensibly to promote his new book, ‘La construcción del milagro’ (The Construction of the Miracle), but the president himself framed the event as a campaign rally meant to “rekindle the fervor” that propelled him to the presidency in 2023, ColombiaOne reported. That’s because this enthusiasm has turned to disillusionment and fury among many Argentine voters. As mid-term elections approach, the president, who had until recently enjoyed extraordinary success with his “chainsaw economics” approach to tackling Argentina’s problems, is starting to look much more vulnerable, especially in the wake of mass discontent with his austerity policies and fury over corruption scandals within his administration. Analysts say these elections, coming on the heels of big losses in a recent local election, lawmakers vetoing his cuts and curtailing his powers, and infighting within his far-right movement, could spell the end for Milei and his reform efforts. “Javier Milei has lost his lucky star,” wrote Spanish newspaper El País. “His redeeming power, emanating from the ‘forces of heaven,’ as he often likes to say, was mercilessly crushed… (and) exposed the king. The ‘best government in the history of humanity’ must now find an earthly formula to alleviate the ordeal that lies ahead – the national legislative elections – and it cannot afford another fall.” Milei, an eccentric libertarian economist and television commentator, was elected as Argentina faced a deep economic crisis with inflation running at more than 200 percent. Since he took office almost two years ago, he’s made deep cuts to government spending, frozen wages, disability benefits and pensions, and brought inflation down to around 2 percent. He delivered a fiscal surplus in his first year after nearly 15 years of deficits. And the country’s projected growth for this year, after two years of recession, could top 5 percent. Even though he has been hailed at home and abroad for starting to turn things around for Argentina, his policies have prompted weekly protests from Argentines who have struggled to survive. In June 2025, unemployment figures reached 7.9 percent – the highest level since 2021, partly because of the budget cuts. Meanwhile, the poverty rate reached a record high in 2024 of 54.8 percent, and although it has decreased, more than one-third of Argentines fall under the poverty line today, with double that number telling pollsters they can’t afford their monthly expenses. And Milei’s removal of currency controls has meant that the Argentine peso has appreciated significantly against the dollar, pushing up the cost of living. Argentina is now one of the most expensive countries in Latin America – with some of the lowest salaries. The situation came to a head for Milei during elections in Buenos Aires province last month. Boasting how he would trounce the opposition, his right-wing party, La Libertad Avanza, only secured about 34 percent of the vote, while its left-wing Peronist opponents won about 47 percent in an election seen as a referendum on his policies. Meanwhile, he has been grappling with corruption scandals involving his sister, his lawyer, and members of his administration. He himself is under investigation for his promotion of a cryptocurrency that turned out to be a scam. That has severely undercut his image as an outsider doing things differently, and his promise to stamp out corruption. “When Milei won Argentina’s presidency in late 2023, a large part of his appeal was his self-portrayal as a populist outsider fighting against the country’s corrupt political ‘caste,’” wrote World Politics Review. “Voters may have been willing to overlook a bit of corruption if they felt Milei’s government was delivering economic policies that were improving their daily lives. However, when people feel economic pain, alleged embezzlement on the part of the president’s lawyer and sister is exactly the sort of scandal that will bring electoral punishment.” Voters, angry over the scandals, threw rocks and bottles at Milei during a recent campaign appearance. Meanwhile, Argentina’s Congress, where his party has a minority, has repeatedly vetoed his proposals and also moved to tighten the leash recently. Earlier this month, Argentina’s lower house overwhelmingly passed a bill to limit his ability to use emergency presidential decrees. In an effort to push forward his austerity agenda, he has issued more than 70 decrees since becoming president in December 2023. Still, commentators say that a main problem for Milei is that he surrounds himself with a small group of advisors including his sister, Karina, known as “the boss” and members of the politically prominent Menem family – also implicated in corruption schemes – but burns bridges with everyone else including the business community, bankers, the country’s governors and other far-right and conservative political leaders as well as the opposition politicians willing to work with him. He also harmed his reputation as a reformer when the peso came under such pressure and threatened his presidency, that he was forced to ask for financial aid from the US last month, funds conditioned on the results of the mid-terms, say analysts. Now, in an election where half of the lower house and one-third of the Senate will be up for grabs, his party is expected to lose again, commentators say. What happens next is up to Milei, they add. “He is weakened, and yet his opponents underestimate his continuing appeal with voters exhausted by decades of political dysfunction,” wrote Time. “The big question is if Milei, off-balance now, can bounce back.”