LUIS ROBAYO / AFP
Protesters in Buenos Aires in front of the police during a demonstration against Javier Milei's reforms, December 27, 2023.
INTERNATIONAL – A month after his election, he is already facing anger on the streets. Several thousand people demonstrated this Wednesday, December 27th, in Buenos Aires against a decree for massive economic deregulation by the new ultra-liberal President Javier Milei. This is the third meeting of its kind in eight days.
In front of the courthouse on Wednesday, demonstrators accompanied the filing of a lawsuit by unions challenging the constitutional nature of the so-called “mega-decree” of December 20, at the call of several unions, including the large central CGT, according to the press.
“We do not question President Milei's legitimacy, but we want him to respect the separation of powers. “Workers must defend their rights when constitutional violations occur,” construction union leader Gerardo Martinez, one of the organizers, told reporters.
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In the images above you can see the crowds in the capital as well as the clashes with law enforcement. The gathering dispersed peacefully after midday, but isolated groups continued to confront large numbers of police attempting to clear an avenue, leading to stampedes. According to several media outlets, seven people were arrested for rebellion.
“Restore economic and social order”
Milei published last week, ten days after taking office, a “DNU” (Emergency and Emergency Decree) aimed at amending or abolishing more than 300 standards, in particular the abolition of rent controls and government intervention to protect the prices of living products , weakening employee protection, enabling privatization.
At the same time, the president elected last month continued his “liberal” revolution by presenting to Parliament, in an extraordinary session since Tuesday and until the end of January, a series of projects or legislative changes affecting many areas of the public and private sector. , from tax laws to elections and marriages to the control of demonstrations.
The series of provisions presented on Wednesday, consisting of more than 600 articles, solemnly christened the “Law of the Foundations and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines,” aims, according to the Presidency, “to restore the economic and social order based on the in of the liberal doctrine “to restore the Constitution of 1853” to “defend the life, liberty and property of the Argentines”.
Austerity measures already in place
In summary, it affects the electoral system – with the aim of eliminating mandatory primaries, which the executive says are costly for taxpayers – and the sovereign by increasing criminal sanctions for obstructing demonstrations. And for pensions by providing an “economically sensible” automatic calculation method.
This legislative package signals the government's intention to move forward on the parliamentary front, while in recent days a lively debate has broken out between legal experts about the constitutionality or not of the “mega-decree” of December 20.
However, the first austerity measures announced in the first days of Milei's presidency are very effective.
The devaluation of the peso, the national currency, by more than 50% and the impending cut in transport and energy subsidies from January will therefore impact the daily lives of millions of Argentines. For the government, the goal is to dramatically reduce Argentina's chronic budget deficit, which is mired in 160% inflation in a year.
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