President Javier Milei of Argentina won Sunday’s midterm elections, following a campaign where US President Donald Trump promised a $40 billion rescue for the nation and made further aid contingent on his Argentine counterpart’s success.
Milei’s governing La Libertad Avanza party won over 40% of votes in national elections to renew almost half of the lower house of Congress, according to tallies in local media using numbers from electoral authorities with more than 97% of votes counted.
Milei won decisive victories in key districts, sweeping away eight provinces in the vote to renew a third of the Senate, figures that exceeded analysts’ projections for Sunday’s vote.
The election, commonly regarded as a de facto referendum on the self-described anarcho-capitalist’s nearly two years in office, offered a crucial vote of confidence that strengthens Milei’s plan for a radical free-market experiment with billions of dollars in backing from the Trump administration.
In comparison, the results showed the left-leaning populist opposition movement, known as Peronism, winning over 31% of the vote, which analysts described as the alliance’s poorest performance in years.
Milei said his party went from holding just 37 seats in the lower house of Congress to 101 after Sunday’s vote. In the Senate, he said La Libertad Avanza picked up 14 more seats to end up with 20 senators.
The strong showing ensures Milei will have enough support in Congress to uphold presidential vetoes, prevent an impeachment effort, and see through his ambitious plans for tax and labour reforms in the coming months.
Milei says Argentina has turned a new page
On Sunday evening, at his party headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires, Milei burst onstage and sang a few lines of the death-metal tune that has become his anthem in a raspy baritone: “I am the king of a lost world!”
Beaming as his supporters cheered, he seized on the results as evidence that Argentina had turned the page on decades of Peronism that brought the country infamy for repeatedly defaulting on its sovereign debt.
“The Argentine people left decadence behind and opted for progress,” Milei said, thanking “all those who supported the ideas of freedom to make Argentina great again.”
Perhaps never has an Argentine legislative election generated so much interest in Washington and Wall Street, particularly after US President Donald Trump indicated that he could rescind $20 billion in financial assistance to his close ally in cash-strapped Argentina if Milei lost Sunday’s vote.
But the buzz around the election abroad wasn’t felt in Argentina. Even though voting is compulsory, electoral authorities reported a turnout rate of just under 68% Sunday, among the lowest recorded since the nation’s 1983 return to democracy.
Milei, a key ideological ally of Trump
After decades of budget deficits and protectionism, Milei, a crucial Trump supporter who has cut state expenditure and liberalised Argentina’s economy, had a lot riding on Sunday’s elections.
Since the Peronist opposition’s significant loss in a provincial election last month alarmed markets and caused a peso sell-off that necessitated the unusual intervention of the US Treasury, Milei’s government has been frantically trying to prevent a currency crisis.
A series of scandals—including bribery allegations against Milei’s powerful sister, Karina Milei—hurt the president’s image as an anti-corruption crusader and hit a nerve among voters reeling from his harsh austerity measures.
But after meeting with Trump earlier this month at the White House, days after the United States agreed to give the South American country a 20 billion dollar financial lifeline, things seemed to take a new shape for Milei.
While reports suggest inflation has dropped dramatically from an annual high of 289% in April 2024 to only 32% last month as a result of the budget cuts, many Argentines are still having difficulty making ends meet.
Since Milei lowered cost-of-living increases, price hikes have surpassed wages and pensions. With the removal of subsidies by Milei, households now pay more for public transportation and electricity.
The unemployment rate is now higher than when the libertarian president took office, according to local media reports.
