Argentine President Javier Millei’s party has won a surprising victory in the country’s parliamentary elections, boosting his ability to push through an economic overhaul that includes free market reforms and deep austerity measures, according to early results.
Early results showed that Millay’s party, La Libertad Avanza, received 40.84% of the votes cast for parliamentarians on Sunday, compared to 31.64% for the opposition Peronist coalition.
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Results are based on a tally of more than 90% of the ballots cast.
The midterm elections are Milley’s first national test since she took office two years ago and will help maintain support for U.S. President Donald Trump. The government recently provided huge amounts of financial aid to Argentina, but has threatened to pull out if liberal leaders do not succeed.
At his La Libertad Avanza headquarters on Sunday, Millay hailed his party’s victory as a “turning point” for the country and promised to press ahead with reforms.
Smiling broadly as supporters cheered him on, he saw the result as evidence that Argentina had turned the page on decades of Peronism, which earned it notoriety for repeatedly defaulting on its debt.
“The Argentine people have abandoned decadence and chosen progress,” Millay said, thanking “all those who supported the cause of freedom that will make Argentina great again.”
Milais’ party triples the number of seats
Half of the seats in the House of Representatives (127 seats) and one-third of the Senate seats (24 seats) were up for grabs in Sunday’s elections.
Milley said the party has now tripled its number of seats, winning from 37 to 101 seats in the House of Commons and from six to 20 in the Senate.
The most surprising outcome of Sunday’s election was in Buenos Aires province, where Millay’s party rebounded from defeat in last month’s local elections to run a close race against the Peronists.
The state had long been a Peronist political stronghold, and Millay’s party’s victory marked a dramatic political change.
A strong performance in Sunday’s election will ensure Milley has enough support in Congress to override the president’s veto, block impeachment efforts and follow through on her ambitious plans for tax and labor reform in the coming months.
To help Mr. Milley, the Trump administration proposed a bailout package potentially worth $40 billion, including an already signed $20 billion currency swap and a proposed $20 billion debt investment facility.
President Trump threatened to pull out if his populist allies performed poorly, warning: “If he doesn’t win, we’re not going to waste our time, because we have someone whose philosophy has no chance of making Argentina great again.”
There was no immediate comment from the White House on Milley’s victory.
“Undisputed, beyond question.”
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Buenos Aires, said Trump’s interest in Milay may have influenced some voters’ decisions.
“Certainly the United States played an important role in the final stages leading up to this election,” she said. “The people here listened. In a way, I may have convinced many people to vote for Javier Millay’s party.”
“This result was a surprise given the president’s party’s 14-point loss to the Peronist opposition in Buenos Aires province last month after one of the toughest austerity programs in the country’s history,” he said.
Analysts said the better-than-expected data could reflect fears of a return to economic turmoil if the country abandons the Millais policy, which has painfully but successfully brought down inflation significantly.
Gustavo Córdoba, director of polling firm Zubán Córdoba, told Reuters he was shocked by the result and thought it reflected public wariness about the possibility of a repeat of past governments’ economic crises.
“A lot of people were willing to give the government another chance,” he said. “We will see how much time Argentine society can give the Argentine government. But this victory cannot be disputed or doubted.”
Milley was a key ideological ally of President Donald Trump, who cut state spending and liberalized Argentina’s economy after decades of deficits and protectionism, and was a major contributor to Sunday’s election.
Milay’s government has been scrambling to avert a currency crisis since last month’s defeat of the Peronist opposition in state elections sent markets into a panic and caused the peso to fall, leading to the unprecedented intervention of the U.S. Treasury Department.
A series of scandals, including bribery allegations against Mr Millay’s powerful sister Carina Millay, have tarnished the president’s image as an anti-corruption crusader and unnerved voters unsettled by his harsh austerity measures.
Budget cuts have sharply reduced inflation from an annual high of 289% in April 2024 to just 32% last month, but many Argentines are still struggling to make ends meet.
Price increases have outpaced salaries and pensions since Mr Millais cut cost of living increases. Since Millais cut subsidies, households are paying more for electricity and public transport. The unemployment rate is higher now than it was when a Libertarian president took office.
