Argentina: Milei celebrates surprising success in midterm elections

Despite a series of corruption scandals around him and a continuing weakening economy, Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei has achieved a surprising success in the midterm congressional elections. His party “La Libertad Avanza” (Freedom Advances) received a good 40 percent of the votes, as the electoral office announced after counting almost all the votes. The left-wing opposition received almost 32 percent.

The vote, in which half of the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate were replaced, was also seen as a mood test at the midpoint of Milei’s presidency. With his tough austerity policy he has managed to balance the budget and reduce inflation. But the hoped-for economic upswing has so far failed to materialize.

Against the backdrop of a tense economic and political situation, the landmark parliamentary election decided on the replacement of half of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the 72 seats in the Senate. Milei’s party was previously in the minority in both chambers and hoped to stabilize its government by gaining a few seats. An exact forecast of seat gains was initially not available based on the partial results. Most recently, he ruled largely through decrees, and his legislative initiatives were repeatedly stopped in Congress. So Milei’s ambitious reform agenda has stalled.

With Sunday’s result, Milei, together with his allies in Congress, could get at least a third of the mandates and thus the necessary quorum to defend his presidential veto against parliamentary decisions.