He had promised shock therapy and chainsaw pruning of the state. Javier Milei, Argentina's far-right outsider turned president, won his first legislative victory on Thursday, June 13, after six months in office with not much to show for it. So, it was with peace of mind that the libertarian president flew to Italy for the G7 summit.
After an endless day of debate, marked by a major mobilization against the bill and incidents with the police, the "Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines" law, the government's flagship project, was validated by the Senate on Wednesday night. The initial draft of the "omnibus bill" introduced in December 2023, which included 664 articles, had to be withdrawn for lack of the necessary votes in a Congress where the president's party, La Libertad Avanza, has only 38 MPs out of 257, and seven senators out of 72.
The more than 200 articles approved on Thursday reform the State, deregulate the economy and the labor market, guarantee a highly advantageous regime for major investments, pave the way for the total or partial privatization of public companies – but only eight of them, as opposed to 41 in the initial draft – and allow Milei to govern for a year without going through Congress in administrative, economic and energy matters.
The law was narrowly approved, with 36 votes in favor and 36 against. Vice-President and President of the Senate Victoria Villarruel broke the tie "for Argentines who are suffering, who are waiting, who don't want to see their children leave the country," in a Senate as divided as public opinion. The MPs still have to approve the text in a final reading.
The horizon has brightened somewhat for the government. The markets, down for several days, rallied on Thursday morning. After the 50% devaluation of the peso implemented in December and a decree deregulating many sectors of the economy published at the start of his term, it was above all the eccentric president's unconventional style, his religious metaphors referring to the Bible, his private meetings abroad and his shocking statements that made the headlines.
Meetings with the CEO of X, Elon Musk, or Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, the content of which is never made public, high-profile speeches to liberal think-tanks, or crowds at far-right rallies in the US and Spain: the president's first six months looked like a show. They have consisted of a campaign-style communication strategy, made of attacking his opponents, civil servants, the scientific community and journalists.
You have 52.82% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.