Argentina Votes in High-Stakes Midterms Testing Milei’s Shock Therapy Reforms

Argentina went to the polls on Sunday in midterm legislative elections that will decide whether President Javier Milei’s radical free-market experiment survives or stalls. The vote comes as austerity bites deep into daily life and inflation remains the country’s defining curse.

Half of the lower house (127 seats) and a third of the Senate (24 seats) were up for grabs. Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, holds fewer than 15 percent of seats in Congress and needs to grow that share to defend his economic overhaul from opposition roadblocks.

“Don’t give up because we’re halfway there,” Milei told supporters in Rosario last week. “We’re on a good path.”

Turnout was low, just 66 percent, according to local reports, the weakest since Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983. Analysts say apathy could undercut the president’s base, already stretched thin by rising poverty and unrest.

The libertarian leader, who took office in December 2023 brandishing a chainsaw to symbolize cuts to public spending, has shredded social programs, eliminated tens of thousands of public jobs, and frozen public works. Inflation, which hit 12.8 percent before he took power, has slowed to 2.1 percent, but growth has collapsed and poverty has soared.

Milei’s alliance with US President Donald Trump has added another layer of pressure. Washington recently promised up to $40 billion in bailout measures, including a $20 billion currency swap and a $20 billion “facility” to stabilise the peso. But Trump warned the deal depends on Milei’s political survival:

“If he doesn’t win, we’re not going to waste our time.”

That comment sparked backlash at home, especially from US farmers angry that Washington might prop up a nation competing in global soy markets.

“Why would the USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market?” asked Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

Milei’s “anarcho-capitalist” revolution remains blocked on several fronts, his plans to privatise state-owned companies and deregulate key sectors have been stalled in Congress, where left and centrist forces retain control.