The first month of Milei government was marked by protests of squares and shocking maneuvers. The value of the peso collapsed with a devaluation of 118%inflation continues to grow, the agreements with the International Monetary Fund are becoming more stringent and debt repayment measures risk increasingly crushing the country’s already fragile economy. In recent months Argentina has “failed” to pay the huge installments of the debt accumulated with the IMF (over 43 billion of dollars) Milei managed to get a new loan from 4.7 billion.
The negotiations lasted almost a week and led to a revision, the seventh, of the agreements of the Extended Financing Mechanism (Extended Fund Facility, Eff), an instrument designed and created by the previous government to “snatch” resources necessary to “bridge” the debt. In return the IMF has asked and is asking for important things adjustments to the internal economy and the structure of the country. The new administration “is already developing an ambitious stabilization plan, based on an initial broad fiscal consolidation, on actions aimed at replenishing reserves, correcting relative price misalignments, strengthening the Central Bank balance sheet and creating a simpler economic system, based on rules and based on the free market” writes the International Monetary Fund in the final note.
The IMF and the Milei government are convinced that the new measures will be able to resolve the situation in the long term but in the short term, they agree, the situation will be shocking and there will be a general worsening in both social and economic terms, with inflation rising by 30% every month and will expand the poor segment which already represents 45% of the population. A prospect that can only fuel tensions and fears in a context where poverty is spreading rapidly. There Cgt has launched a one-day national strike for January 24 while between January 10th and 11th thousands of people gathered in front of the Pink House to protest against the necessity and emergency decree with which the government would like to derogate or further modify 600 lawsbut also against read to all and therefore against the privatization of 41 state-owned companiesthe cut to public spending and subsidies and the change in the rules on university fees.
Today fuel costs the 114% more than it cost December 10th, the day of the start of the Milei government, and at the same time the peso is worth half of what it was worth on December 9th. Furthermore, the Omnibus law provides for a sharp reduction in the financing of cultural policies, cuts for cinema and the closure ofNational Theater Institute, but also a modification of the system for allocating resources in the hands of the National Institute of Music. And so the collective United for Culturewhich brings together more than 100 cultural associations and community groups in the country, organized the National Cultural Cacerolazo, protest staged in 50 cities between 3pm and 10pm. The Cacerolazo – a peaceful protest involving the banging of a spoon on a saucepan – already a symbol of the protests of the beginning of 2000, has once again become the modusnoisy and not only, of protests with which Argentinians try to circumvent the anti-protest measures launched by the minister Bullrich for the president Javier Miley.
But more than the “Omnibus Law”, it is the Decree of Necessity and Emergency (Dnu) that puts the country’s democratic stability at risk, not only because of the number of articles that will be affected if parliament approves the measure but because Milei binds in a the DNU is very close to the economic reforms agreed with the IMF, as if to say that there is no other way than to say yes to its proposal if we do not want to sink the country even further into the abyss. According to Great Homeland Front, founded by Juan Grabois, “the Milei government began with four measures that liquefy the purchasing power and savings of Argentina’s middle and popular classes. With the DNU he is trying to cancel the division of powers, he is accelerating on central aspects of social democracy through a bill which is in fact a sort of constitutional reform, and he has attacked criminal law through the “protocol” on demonstrations which he aim to intimidate those who oppose these measures by exercising the right to protest within the constitutional framework.”
But in the DNU the Milei government also limits trade union and protest rights and significantly attacks workplace rights, first dramatically expanding the area of ”strategic services”, i.e. those that must guarantee the 75% present even in the event of a strike. Never in Argentine history has a president had to face so many protests and mobilizations in his first month in office. According to estimates by La Centrale dei Lavoratori Argentini (Cta), in these first 30 days of government purchasing power has fallen by 15% and the minimum wage has a lower value than 26,7% compared to December 2019 and of 43,5% compared to the same month of 2015.
Milei’s victory certainly matured within the disaster that these numbers, together with the inflation rate recorded in recent years, tell of Argentina’s political history. The most serious thing is that forecasts say that everything could get worse quickly. A collapse that for the president will serve to see the country reborn within 15 years. But in addition to tensions with the people of Argentina, the Milei government is also clashing with institutional politics, especially with local governors. The governors Alberto Weretilneck (Black river), Rolando Figueroa (Neuquen), Ignacio Torres (Chubut), Claudio Vidal (Santa Cruz) and Gustavo Melella (Tierra del Fuego), harshly criticize the proposed reform of the rules on fishing included in the Omnibus law and ask for the change of the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos. While an unmentioned but present theme in the fears of the country’s future is that linked to the armed forces, and not only due to the presence in Milei’s government of deniers of what happened with the dictatorship. According to what is written on the site Online Politicsthere is bad mood in the Army due to the forced retirement of 23 generals and the opening of the Argentine sea to foreign ships was not appreciated. At the same time he was appointed general of the ground forces Alberto Presti, son of the late Colonel Roque Presti who actively participated in the repression of the 1960s. The issue has raised the attention of various human rights organizations. The lawyer Pablo Llonto he observed that “politically Presti’s investiture is a signal. This is part of the restructuring of the Ministry of Defense that Minister Luis Petri is carrying out.” According to the lawyer, the minister took the decision “under the aegis of Patricia Bullrich and vice president Victoria Villarruel”. For the lawyer, the government’s intention is to “place Armed Forces officers in the Ministry of Defense in positions that were previously occupied by civilians.”