Milei Triumphs In Argentina Alongside His Free-Market Agenda

With more than 40% of votes, Javier Milei won the Argentinian midterm elections in a landslide victory, sinking the peronistas coalition “Fuerza Patria” at 31.7%. This victory counteracts negative results from recent local elections held in Buenos Aires where Milei lost by 14% to the peronistas.

Last Sunday, Milei’s victory marked a second turning point in Argentina’s recent history, leveling the playing field for a second phase of long needed libertarian reforms to modernize the country. “Today the people decided to leave behind 100 years of decline. Today marks the beginning of building a great Argentina,” Milei said in a recent statement, “This result is nothing more and nothing less than the confirmation of the mandate we assumed in 2023.”

This decisive victory, along with the promise of a $40 billion bailout from the Trump Administration, improved confidence in the economy, with markets and investors reacting positively. The Argentine peso surged nearly 10% against the U.S. dollar, while shares from Argentina’s main investing banks BBVA Argentina, Grupo Financiero Galicia and Banco Macro rose considerably.

While this election’s turnout of 67.85% was the lowest since the return of democracy in 1983, Milei’s party Libertad Avanza, in alliance with PRO, won in 15 districts gaining 104 seats out of the 257 in the lower Chamber and 24 out of 72 in the Senate changing completely the political congressional landscape. Making the peronistas, who’ve governed the country for the last 17 years, the defenders of the old populist regime, one based on high inflation and corruption.

“Despite having most of the media against him,” Augustin Etchebarne from the Argentinian free market think tank Fundación Libertad y Progreso says, “the president obtained a resounding 41% of the vote, compared with 31% for Kirchnerism and 9% for the more moderate Peronists.

In total, 75% of Argentines rejected a return to populism and endorsed the path of structural reforms and economic openness.” Despite his landslide victory, Milei’s post-victory statement remained conciliatory, embracing the idea of extending and consolidating a major consensus inside the Congress to push for key reforms on labor, pension, and a tax reform.

“The new composition of Congress, once the incoming deputies and senators assume office on December 10,” Juan Cruz executive director of the think tank FREE says “will give the government greater room to maneuver in implementing its long-awaited reform agenda. While it will still need to negotiate with non-Kirchnerist blocs, the administration now finds itself within striking distance of a quorum in both chambers—an advantage that significantly strengthens its legislative position. The outlook for advancing a liberal and pro-market agenda is therefore highly favorable. In this context, President Javier Milei has already sent a positive political signal by convening a meeting with the provincial governors to outline the next steps in pursuing this ambitious package of structural reforms.”

Beside recent scandals involving politicians such as José Luis Espert and his sister Karina Milei, and recent economic setback, Milei, after two years of government, is still riding the consensus among Argentinian among the youth and middle class. A consensus supported by realism and the idea that going back to previous radical leftist populist policies would be a jump into the abyss of the economic catastrophe.

According to the recently released Index on property rights, Argentina improved in the protection of property rights, climbing 11 positions to 84th place in 2025 from 95th in 2023. This progress together with the numerous reforms undertaken by President Milei’s administration have shaken the once monolithic and unionized Argentine economy.

The government cut public spending by a historic 30% in real terms (equivalent to 5% of GDP), reformed the State, normalized and deregulated the economy, drove down annual inflation from 211.4% in 2023 to 31.8% by September 2025, achieved primary and fiscal surplus along with a 6.3% YoY growth rate in the second quarter of 2025 (“V-shaped” recovery). As a result, the poverty rate fell from 52.9% to 31.6%, and the extreme poverty rate fell from 18.1% to 6.9%, lifting 3.3 million people out of extreme poverty. While challenges remain, the stabilization plan has proven largely successful, and the economy is moving toward sustained normalization and growth. Reflecting this progress, Moody’s upgraded Argentina’s credit rating from Caa3 to Caa1.

The leftist waves that led Latin America for twenty-year seems to have arrived at its end. After awarding the opposition Venezuelan leader Maria Corina Machado of the Nobel Peace Prize and the historic victory in Bolivia by the center-right candidate Ricardo Paz, this midterm election marks the sunset of the so-called “Socialism XXI º Century” in the region.

A wave of authoritarian-populism and radical socialism inaugurated by Hugo Chavez in 1998 and supported by Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and by the Kircheneristas in Argentina until 2023.

The next electoral cycle in Latin America will be in Chile on November 16, where the conservative candidate Jose Antonio Kast is leading polls by 23% among center-right candidates, placing him in a competitive advantage against the communist candidate and former Minister of Labor Jeannette Jara in case of run-off. With a potential victory of Kast, Latin America may enter a new political cycle of economic liberalism, open market and subsidiarity policies, making the region more competitive and more open to the world economy. At this point “pupulismo nunca mas” (no more populism) appears to be the mantra of the new political narrative emerging in Latin America, one based on economic freedom, rule of law, accountability, property rights, and prosperity.