Users of the Buenos Aires subway board a train, in an archive image. Jeff Greenberg (Getty Images)
The debate over how far the Argentine state is going has already kept the debate abuzz days before the presidential election on October 22nd. The speeches of the ultra Javier Milei, leader in the polls and winner of the primaries, have made it clear that if he triumphs on Sunday, he will seek a draconian reduction in the presence of the state in the lives of Argentines, a broad figure that is achieved Aspects that the residents themselves ultimately do not understand. The proof of this was the last debate, which began a few days before the end of the election campaign. The government of Alberto Fernández announced this week that public transport users who want to forego government subsidies can do so. Such a decision would, in the best case scenario, mean an 800% increase in ticket prices. The move seeks to make the executive’s help in the daily economy visible to the population and silence speech that criticizes the state’s presence.
“Everything the state does, it does wrong,” Milei said just three days ago in one of Argentina’s most-watched television shows. “He’s doing it wrong,” he repeated. It was the latest comment in a series of messages directed against the state by the leader of the La Libertad Avanza party. The presidential candidate has tried to spread the idea that the state as it currently exists in Argentina is too big and spends excessively. For this reason, he has attacked government support countless times, for example railing against welfare for the most disadvantaged. He has even promised to abolish ministries such as education and health.
His ideas are popular with voters who believe the government’s aid is excessive. “I have no problem with them taking away the subsidies if they guarantee my transportation in another way,” said a user who openly opposed the subsidies in an interview this Tuesday on national television. The sentence reveals a new reality: many are ready to vote for the candidate who wants to abolish welfare without knowing that they are also beneficiaries. According to the 2022 survey by the Social Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University, more than half of Argentines receive at least some type of social assistance from the state.
To illustrate this figure, Transport Minister Diego Giuliano indicated in the announcement published this week that he wanted to inform people about what it means not to receive transport subsidies. The means achieved are the trains, the price of which would rise from around 0.5 dollars to three dollars for the most expensive ticket at the official exchange rate. For fines, it would rise from $0.2 to almost $2. The measure is not intended to raise funds or affect workers, as only those who wanted to pay the entire ticket would pay. It is actually a political move to teach workers what they would pay for each trip if they did not receive government support.
“We are in the middle of an election campaign in which many or some leaders have declared that transport subsidies are not necessary for users,” Giuliano said at the press conference. “This measure exudes sincerity and clarity on the issues under public debate,” he stressed. “Those who agree with the no-subsidy policy should resign, we will give them this opportunity.”
During the election campaign, Milei’s supporters championed the idea that the state is the enemy and the opposite of freedom, the core value that the ultra-candidate represents. The most critical accuse the economist, a political outsider, of not knowing how this huge state apparatus works. The scope of this presence, greatly expanded during the years of Kirchnerism and the coronavirus pandemic, is at stake in the elections next Sunday.