It’s been a year to the day since Javier Milei, the libertarian economist and TV pundit, became president of Argentina. His unlikely rise to the political center stage culminated in a stunning electoral upset that catapulted him to international fame.
A year ago today, he entered the national Congress and donned the presidential sash before breaking with custom to deliver his inauguration speech not to the career politicians inside but to the people waiting in the square.
In that year, the president plunged Argentina into a recession as part of a top-down process of wresting the country’s economy into line with free market orthodoxy. The process involved some of the most extreme deregulation the country has seen since the 1990s.
But Milei has also delivered plenty of surprises. Chief among them is that, despite protests that were often repressed with violence, his government has not faced the kind of massive uprising that would force them to renegotiate their fundamental proposals. Recent figures show that around half of Argentines still approve of him. Despite an abrasive stance toward his opponents and a tiny congressional minority, his pragmatism has allowed him to strike the deals he needs to govern. And, astonishingly, he has managed to cut Argentina’s inflation.
In this article, we summarize the key developments and challenges of Milei’s administration over the past year, exploring the impacts of his radical policies, the social responses they elicited, and the overall trajectory of his presidency.
SOURCE: buenosairesherald.com