Good! Argentina Voters Hand Pro-Free Market Populist Landslide Victory
Big government communists and socialists took a major blow in the latest Argentina election after Argentine President Javier Milei’s party cruised to victory in midterm legislative elections as voters handed him a mandate to keep pushing through his economic goals to cut bloated governmental spending and curbing price inflation.
“Today we passed a turning point,” Mr. Milei told supporters on Sunday night, after coming onstage and singing a campaign song. “Today begins the building of a great Argentina” he said. “Argentines showed that they don’t want to return to the model of failure” said Milei, speaking triumphantly before a crowd of supporters at a hotel in Buenos Aires after the results.
The victory gives Mr. Milei enough support in Congress to prevent his vetoes from being overridden, putting him in a strong position to further his ambitious free market, limited government agenda.
Foreign investors have been impressed by the government’s ability to significantly reduce monthly inflation from 12.8% before Milei’s inauguration to 2.1% last month, while achieving a fiscal surplus and enacting sweeping deregulation measures.
It was also a victory for President Trump, who had endorsed Mr. Milei and said that a bailout from the United States, in the form of a $20 billion currency swap, was contingent on his success in the election. Mr. Milei is an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Trump and the MAGA movement, and his fortunes are seen by the Trump administration as a way to bolster American influence in South America and counter China’s push into the region.
The president’s party, La Libertad Avanza, scored 41.5% of the vote in Buenos Aires province compared with 40.8% for the Peronist coalition, according to official results. The province has long been a political stronghold for the Peronists, marking a dramatic political shift, and a major comeback for Milei from Buenos Aires congressional elections in September. Nationwide, La Libertad Avanza got 64 seats in the House of Deputies, up Post too long. Click here to view the full text.
