Crystal Dike
Argentina’s President Javier Milei has led his party, La Libertad Avanza, to a landslide victory in Sunday’s midterm elections, strengthening his hand to push through sweeping spending cuts and free-market reforms.
With nearly 41% of the vote, Milei’s party secured 13 of 24 Senate seats and 64 of the 127 lower-house seats contested, a result that analysts say will make it significantly easier for him to advance his controversial austerity programme.
The midterms marked the first national test of Milei’s popularity since he took office in 2023, having pledged to take a metaphorical—and often literal—“chainsaw” to state spending.
Before the vote, US President Donald Trump, a vocal ally, said Washington’s recently announced $40 billion financial lifeline to Argentina would depend on Milei maintaining political momentum. Critics in Buenos Aires condemned the remark as foreign interference, but Milei embraced it, telling supporters:
“We must consolidate the path of reform we have embarked upon… to make Argentina great again.”
Before this election, La Libertad Avanza held only seven Senate seats and 37 in the lower house. The new gains give Milei a much stronger base after months of clashes with opposition lawmakers who overturned his vetoes on bills to boost funding for universities, children’s healthcare, and programmes for people with disabilities.
Outside a Buenos Aires hotel where Milei monitored results, hundreds of supporters celebrated into the night.
“Milei didn’t have 15% of Congress before. Now, he can change the country in a year,” said Dionisio, a young voter.
Milei’s austerity drive has cut budgets for education, pensions, health, and infrastructure, and led to the dismissal of tens of thousands of public sector workers. Supporters credit him with taming triple-digit inflation, reducing the deficit, and restoring investor confidence, but critics warn that the social cost has been severe.
Juliana, who works with children with disabilities in Tucumán province, said she fears renewed cuts could threaten services.
“Our salaries remain the same while everything else increases,” she said.
Others, like retired police officer Veronica, say they have suffered under pension cuts.
“You see a lot of poverty. Many factories have closed,” she said.
Milei’s government has kept inflation down by propping up the peso, leaving it overvalued and draining foreign reserves ahead of $20 billion in debt repayments due next year.
Earlier market concerns—sparked by Milei’s poor showing in Buenos Aires province in September—now appear eased by his decisive midterm win. Economists expect financial markets to rally this week in anticipation of continued fiscal tightening and sustained US support.
Still, ordinary Argentines remain divided.
“We’re on the right path, but the middle and working classes are suffering too much,” said Dardo, a business owner in the capital.
For many voters, Milei’s victory reaffirms a rejection of the Peronist economic model he blames for decades of mismanagement.
“Argentines showed they do not want to return to the failed model… the model of inflation and a useless state,” Milei declared.
With this sweeping mandate, Milei is expected to accelerate economic deregulation and deepen spending cuts ahead of the 2027 presidential election, when he may seek a second term.
The question now is whether Argentines will begin to feel the benefits of his reforms—or if the pain of austerity will again test the patience of those who gave him another chance.