Not surprisingly, the far-right president announced a decree facilitating privatizations in many sectors. A speech that led to the first demonstrations of his mandate.
He immediately announced the color on economic and social issues. And he made good on his threats. Far-right Argentine President Javier Milei announced massive deregulation of Latin America's third-largest economy on Wednesday, December 20, signing a decree that would change or repeal more than 300 standards, including those on rents, privatizations and labor laws. However, the decree still has to go through parliament, where Milei's party is in the minority.
“The goal is to begin the path to rebuilding the country, return freedom and autonomy to individuals, and begin to defuse the enormous amount of regulation that has slowed, hindered, and prevented economic growth in our country,” Milei said in a speech broadcast on radio and television.
The measures announced include the repeal of the rent law “so that the real estate market can function smoothly again,” said the president, who was elected in November and took office on December 10th. A problem of poor housing that still occurs again and again in the country, especially since the Covid crisis.
Laws that prevent the privatization of public companies such as the airline Aerolineas Argentinas or the oil company YPF must also be repealed. All public companies would be converted into joint stock companies with a view to privatization, said Javier Milei, a trained economist.
The head of state also announced a “modernization of labor law” to create more jobs, the change in company law to allow football clubs to become public limited companies, and a series of other deregulation measures in the areas of tourism, health, internet, air transport, pharmacy, Viticulture and even trade.
For Milei it is difficult to find an agreement in parliament
The decree was published in the Official Gazette at midnight. It must be examined within ten days by a joint commission of representatives and senators, but will only be declared invalid if it is rejected by both chambers of parliament, explained constitutional lawyer Emiliano Vitaliani.
But Milei's far-right party, La Libertad Avanza, has just 40 of 257 seats in the lower house and just seven of 72 seats in the Senate. He must therefore seek support from the center-right Juntos por el Cambio coalition, partly allied with Milei and with 81 MPs and 24 senators, as well as 26 MPs and eight independent senators. The Peronist opposition has 105 representatives and 33 senators, the left has five representatives.
“This news is not surprising because there is nothing Milei hasn't said he would do during the campaign. But it is surprising that the measure was taken in this way with an emergency decree,” commented political scientist Lara Goyburu. Javier Milei announced a first set of measures on December 12, including a shocking devaluation of the peso by more than 50% and reductions in transport and energy subsidies.
The 53-year-old economist tries to justify his ultra-liberal decisions in particular with inflation in the country, which exceeds 160% in a year, and with more than 40% of the population poor. Milei also wants to reduce public spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“It reminds me of the dictatorship”
The president's address sparked a chorus of protest in several neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, and thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets near Parliament to express their opposition. A few hours before the president's speech, thousands of demonstrators had already marched through the capital at the call of the left-wing organizations Polo Obrero and Movimiento Socialista.
It was the first demonstration against Milei since he came to power. Javier Milei's government last week threatened to cut welfare payments to protesters blocking the streets. The size of the police force, which the president and his security minister Patricia Bullrich oversee from federal police headquarters, was criticized by organizers. Eduardo Belliboni, chairman of Polo Obrero, even criticized: “It reminds me of the dictatorship.”