BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The anarcho-capitalist president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has been in power for eight months, and Argentinians’ lives may be changing.
Recent surveys indicate that Milei is still supported by a majority of Argentinians, with 55.4% holding a favorable opinion of him and 44.3% expressing a negative view.
“Young people and the poor continue to stand by Milei,” says Agustin Etchebarne, general director of the libertarian think tank Libertad y Progreso. “Most of them voted for him, and they remain steadfast in their support.”
If they criticize him at all, Etchebarne says, it is mostly because they think he is not being radical enough. They want him to take even tougher action against the despised “Casta” that brought such ruin upon the country.
But Milei cannot implement his program the way he wants because he only commands the support of seven out of 72 senators and 38 out of 257 members of Parliament. He proposed a new law called Ley Bases, through which 600 articles would have been passed into law. But he withdrew the law when he realized that he would not get a majority in Congress. Afterward, he presented a shorter law with fewer reforms and only 200 articles, which was accepted with minimal changes.
The elections in October 2025 could potentially shift the balance of power. However, with a third of the Senate and half of Parliament up for reelection, Milei’s party is likely to gain a significantly larger number of seats in Parliament.
But what has changed for the better, and what has changed for the worse? On a positive note, skyrocketing inflation, which Argentinians identified as the primary concern during the election, has decreased significantly. Monthly inflation in Argentina was 12.8% in November 2023 and 25.5% in December 2023, the month Milei started his government. In July 2024, inflation was only in the single digits and stood at 4%.
What is also important: Federico Sturzenegger, who was recently appointed as minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, has been instrumental in advancing a comprehensive deregulation agenda, which will be crucial for Argentina’s economic recovery.
But, at the same time, there has been a decline in economic output, which is having a direct impact on people’s lives. The poverty rate has risen from 40% to around 55%. The middle class has been hit particularly hard. This is because the poorest Argentinians can still rely on state welfare payments under Milei. What Milei has changed, however, is allocating funds directly to those in need, bypassing the intermediaries, the left-leaning political organizations that claimed to support the poor but siphoned off most of the money for themselves.
“Milei now gives the money directly to the poor, while the left-wing organizations are left empty-handed,” Etchebarne said. “That is the big difference [from] the conservative [Mauricio] Macri, who inadvertently bolstered his left-wing political adversaries with massive cash payments during his time in office. By cutting out the intermediaries, the poorest Argentines now receive twice as much assistance as they used to get. The problem is that only the poorest benefit from these measures; it is difficult for the middle class, some of whom are slipping into poverty themselves.”
Do the left-wing Peronists pose a threat to Milei? Not at the moment. As one scandal after another is uncovered, the full extent of their corruption is being revealed. One such revelation is that 80% of state film funding did not go to film producers. It went to state bureaucrats. And the situation was similar in many areas.
Another scandal that has made headlines in Argentina in recent weeks involves the Peronist Alberto Fernandez, who was president of Argentina from 2018 to 2022 and has always presented himself as a champion of women’s rights. Now, his wife, Fabiola Yanez, has accused him of domestic violence and provided photographic evidence of injuries sustained to her face. The shocking accusations have not only rocked the Argentine public, but they have also caused a stir in the Peronist opposition camp. In Argentina, people are saying, “Yes, Milei abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, like many other ministries, but Fernandez beat his wife.”
Milei’s alliance with Macri’s conservative party is difficult. In October 2023, Milei prevailed against the conservative candidate Patricia Bullrich. She then endorsed Milei in the runoff elections and is now minister of security. Bullrich was even planning to merge her party with Milei’s but failed to overcome opposition from Macri.
“The main problem is that there are two parties on the right, Macri’s and Milei’s, which means the libertarians and conservatives will always find it hard to win a majority against the left-wing Peronists,” explains Enrique Duhau, president of Libertad y Progreso.
Duhau and Etchebarne praise Bullrich, the minister with responsibility for homeland security. She has stopped the streets from being blocked by left-wing demonstrators on a daily basis. Demonstrations are still allowed, but the protesters are now required to gather on sidewalks or in parks, in places where they cannot block the flow of traffic.
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Milei’s success will depend, above all, on whether Argentinians have the patience required to give his reforms the time they will need to succeed. Milei has the potential to achieve the same level of success as Former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom.
However, in both cases, things started off by getting worse (e.g., economic output fell) before getting much better. This is always the case with market economy reforms, and one can only hope Milei’s supporters will understand this and not lose patience. After all, decades of damage cannot be fixed in a year.
Rainer Zitelmann is the author of the book The Power of Capitalism.
