{"id":9511,"date":"2025-09-08T01:09:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9511"},"modified":"2025-09-08T01:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:09:27","slug":"argentina-president-milei-suffers-crushing-defeat-in-buenos-aires-provincial-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9511","title":{"rendered":"Argentina President Milei Suffers Crushing Defeat in Buenos Aires Provincial Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Argentine President Javier Milei suffered a sweeping setback on Sunday in a Buenos Aires provincial election widely viewed as a political test for his libertarian party and a barometer for how it will perform in crucial congressional midterms next month.<\/p>\n

Milei\u2019s recently formed La Libertad Avanza<\/a><\/span> party captured just 34% of the vote in Argentina\u2019s biggest province, losing by a landslide to the left-leaning Peronist opposition<\/a><\/span>, which secured 47% with the majority of ballots counted late Sunday.<\/p>\n

Milei conceded that his right-wing party\u2019s crushing 13-point loss to his populist rivals represented \u201ca clear defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe suffered a setback, and we must accept it responsibly,\u201d Milei told grim-faced supporters at the party headquarters, his tone reflective, even chastened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019ve made political mistakes, we\u2019re going to internalize them, we\u2019re going to process them, we\u2019re going to modify our actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, he vowed to stick with his sweeping economic overhaul<\/a><\/span>, saying: \u201cThere will be no retreat in government policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Milei faces a worse-than-expected defeat<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

With Milei struggling to stabilize a sputtering economy<\/a><\/span> and his close associates embroiled by a graft scandal<\/a><\/span> ahead of congressional midterm elections in late October, the results were being closely scrutinized for their potential to rattle investors and roil jittery global markets.<\/p>\n

Analysts expected La Libertad Avanza to lose by a few points to the Peronists, but his allies feared that a worse-than-expected outcome in Buenos Aires province \u2014 which makes up nearly 40% of the country\u2019s population \u2014 would galvanize his rivals at a delicate time.<\/p>\n

Peronist leader and former President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner<\/a><\/span> appeared to feel on that she was getting some payback after a corruption conviction<\/a><\/span> and criticism of her economic management, which led to a crisis that Milei inherited.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you see that, Milei?\u201d the two-term former president (2007-2015) wrote on social media platform X. \u201cGet out of your bubble, brother. \u2026 Things are getting heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stakes are raised for congressional midterms<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milei needs to expand his party\u2019s tiny minority in the opposition-dominated Congress in midterms next month to fulfill his radical libertarian reforms<\/a><\/span> and make good on his promise to turn the nine-time defaulter into a country capable of servicing its debts.<\/p>\n

The Peronists are now the largest bloc in Argentina\u2019s fragmented congress, and have used their numbers to pass social spending measures<\/a><\/span> that are testing Milei\u2019s efforts to balance Argentina\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis result is a key data point to understand the social mood \u2014 where the opposition stands, the state of Peronism and the level of support for the government in Argentina\u2019s most important electoral district,\u201d said Juan Cruz D\u00edaz, the head of Cefeidas Group, a consultancy in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile not the main national election in October, it is nonetheless a wake-up call for the government, and how it reacts will be crucial to understanding the evolving political map.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An economy in troubled waters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Milei can boast of bringing down<\/a><\/span> Argentina\u2019s triple-digit inflation<\/a><\/span> over the last few months and ending the reckless spending of his Peronist predecessors, Argentines have yet to see the economic revival that was supposed to follow his harsh austerity measures.<\/p>\n

His government has unwound Argentina\u2019s labyrinthine currency restrictions<\/a><\/span> as part of a $20 billion International Monetary Fund bailout<\/a><\/span>, but has not yet won the trust of international financiers who could bring the investment needed to add jobs and turbocharge economic growth in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilei has a very strong ideology, and his vision is that the state has to have a minimal impact and investments have to come from the private sector. But that hasn\u2019t materialized yet,\u201d said Ana Iparraguirre, an Argentine political analyst and partner at Washington-based strategy firm GBAO.<\/p>\n

Consumer confidence is falling, unemployment is rising, and interest rates are soaring to record highs as the government repeatedly intervenes in the currency market to prop up the peso and hold down inflation in hopes of placating cash-strapped voters.<\/p>\n

A battered Peronist party basks in its victory<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Fern\u00e1ndez waved wildly from the balcony of her home in Buenos Aires, where she is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest<\/a><\/span>, former, to massive crowds of supporters celebrating in the streets below.<\/p>\n

Despite being barred from politics for life, she remains the most influential<\/a><\/span> leader of Peronism, an ideologically flexible populist movement focused on labor rights that emerged in the 1940s from Buenos Aires province and dominated politics for decades.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez gloated over Milei\u2019s agonies on social media, arguing that the bribery scandal engulfing the president\u2019s powerful sister<\/a><\/span> would prove \u201clethal\u201d for his electoral prospects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I won\u2019t even start on how the rest (those who still have jobs) are doing. Burdened with debt for food, rent, utilities or medications, and on top of that, with maxed-out credit cards,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The electoral results also cast a spotlight on Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s former protege, Axel Kicillof, the left-wing governor of Buenos Aires province and one of Milei\u2019s fiercest critics, revealing him as best positioned to take up the mantle of future Peronist leadership.<\/p>\n

Kicillof gave an ebullient speech late Sunday in which he rebuked Milei and reminded voters what they\u2019ve lost<\/a><\/span> by swapping Peronist populism for Milei\u2019s brutal spending cuts<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ballot boxes told Milei that public works cannot be halted. They explained to him that retirees cannot be beaten, that people with disabilities cannot be abandoned,\u201d he told cheering supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ballot boxes shouted that education, healthcare, science and culture cannot be defunded.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Isabel Debre, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Argentine President Javier Milei suffered a sweeping setback on Sunday in a Buenos Aires provincial election widely viewed as a political test for his libertarian party and a barometer for how it will perform in crucial congressional midterms next month. Milei\u2019s recently formed La Libertad Avanza party captured just 34% of the vote in Argentina\u2019s biggest province,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":9512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/1c9a24f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3334+0+0\/resize\/1440x960!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F68%2F66%2F72cd575bc326ce20f471772e24c5%2Fe94b6e72b06c436894c07134506ffffb","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9513,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511\/revisions\/9513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}