The economic situation in Argentina is very delicate, there is not enough money, the adjustments made by the government Javier Milei They have left “sectors that were once poor now destitute.” In short: “The poor are getting poorer,” says the independent Conicet researcher and director of the Social Protest Observatory. Ana Natalucci.
For his part, Javier Milei had no qualms about accusing the “political caste” of poverty Argentinaaccording to a new study by the Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), which revealed that 57% of citizens have low resources, more than 26 million people.
The impact of the growing economic crisis in Argentina
—Which sectors are most affected by the economic crisis?
—Argentina already had a high poverty rate, about 35%. What happened is that the government of Javier Milei made some decisions related to the liberalization of rental prices, food and health issues, which led to the basic basket being today about 600,000 Argentine pesos.
It is estimated that there are three and a half million more poor people since the government came into office to date. There are two phenomena: on the one hand, neediness is emerging – that is, those in need are more and more needy – and there are also sectors that were once poor and are now needy; But there are also parts of the middle class that are also already poor. When rent and salaries are fixed and the increase in the cost of living is very high, this actually leads to poverty within the traditionally middle-class sectors.
—Javier Milei announced that there would be no increase in base salary. With these numbers of poverty and general unrest, how will this affect your government?
“The government called a meeting on the minimum wage and said it would not increase it. There are two problems: On the one hand, there are poor workers who generally earn the minimum wage; So if you iron with a minimum wage of $100, Argentina is very low. So if you don't increase salaries, you provoke a consolidation of poverty. Today, not only are there more poor people, but the poor are getting poorer, which represents a more qualitative type of growth and consolidation of poverty.
On the other hand, there are many social programs that were linked to the minimum wage; Therefore, all these sectors, whether poor or needy, are becoming poorer or needier. The situation in Argentina today is very delicate because there is actually not enough money and the government is determined to deteriorate living conditions very quickly.
Today there is a phenomenon of social conflict that is constantly increasing and to which the government responds only with very brutal repression, which violates any kind of regulation of multilateral organizations, and on the other hand, a problem that has to do with great social unrest whose effects we do not yet see.
“What caused the social outbreak in Chile was the prices of public transport. Could this perhaps also trigger an outbreak in Argentina, or do you not think that such a scenario is very close?”
– The case of Chile is different because it was said that it was not 30 pesos, but 30 years (of the Chilean system), and that was like the last straw of a process that came as neoliberalism. In Argentina it seems to me that it is not a drop on the back, but rather a strategy of the Milei government, but of the dominant, most concentrated sectors of the Argentine economy, which produce a brutal disposition, a brutal redistribution of the wealth from the lower sectors to the upper sectors, along with the dismantling of a number of mechanisms by which the state and organizations provided containment.
Javier Milei blamed the “political caste” for poverty in Argentina. Photo: AFP
In this context, I think the idea of an outbreak – and even more so given the tradition that Argentina has – is quite possible. We have a statistical protest base and have done a bit of work on some pandemic numbers and there has been a very high level of conflict. I believe that there is a possibility that there will be a social explosion, and I believe that this is why the government's strategy relies largely on repression.
This specter of social eruption prevails in all organized sectors of society in general.
—How long will the discourse of political caste last in these moments of art criticism?
“I would characterize the Milei government within neo-fascism, within the radical right, along the lines of Trump, Bolsonaro, Italy, Hungary, Vox and all these kinds of fascist experiences of the radical right.”
In this context, I am not surprised that they stand against some artists, for example Lali, because La Libertad Avanza (Milei's party) is also misogynistic, sexist and anti-feminist. They are violating women's rights, they are extremely conservative in this regard and I believe they are doing this primarily to maintain their voter base of young men.
—Is this economic crisis comparable to that of 2001 or is it more serious?
“I think it is more serious now because it seems to me that in 2001 we had an orthodox neoliberal program for ten years, but now there is greater poverty, inflation makes it very complicated and the government is dismantling all containment measures .”
—Is Javier Milei heading for a repressive government?
-Yes definitely. The Milei government hopes to stop hope on streets through repression, and that's a problem because when it represses, violence continues to spread.