{"id":231938,"date":"2025-10-29T11:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231938\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:26:07","slug":"a-colony-of-the-us-argentinians-contemplate-future-after-trump-backed-milei-coasts-to-victory-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231938\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A colony of the US\u2019: Argentinians contemplate future after Trump-backed Milei coasts to victory | Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition posters scattered across Buenos Aires before Sunday\u2019s midterms showed president Javier Milei\u2019s name plastered over a US flag, in a bid to tap into anti-American sentiment over Donald Trump\u2019s alleged interference<\/a> in Argentina\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Days before the vote, the US president announced a $40bn bailout for his Argentinian counterpart but warned that if Milei did not win he would withdraw his support.<\/p>\n

Despite what has been described as the lowest point of his nearly two years in power \u2013 with an economic downturn and allegations of corruption \u2013 Milei won by a wide margin: about 41% to 32%, something opinion polls had failed to predict.<\/p>\n

With the result, the president\u2019s party, La Libertad Avanza, went from holding a modest presence in Congress, to a majority when combined with the seats of the centre-right PRO, the party of former president Mauricio Macri, which has already been an ally to Milei.<\/p>\n

The sweeping victory \u2013 which even the president admitted<\/a> had taken him by surprise \u2013 left many wondering whether the result reflects genuine support for Milei or if it was merely the outcome of what many saw as Trump\u2019s economic blackmail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the US bailout will bring some stability, but I also know that if the US has to let go of your hand at some point, it will,\u201d said Agustin Cantilo, a 30-year-old broker who lives in Tigre and voted for Milei\u2019s party twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one party I will never, ever vote for in my life, it\u2019s Peronism; that said, what matters most to me now is stability,\u201d he added. \u201cMilei is fixing the macro issues that matter to Argentinians: low inflation, a stable dollar \u2026 We\u2019ve never had economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

A demonstrator holds a sign depicting Donald Trump and Javier Milei. Photograph: Emiliano Lasalvia\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

After enforcing deep spending cuts with his so-called \u201cchainsaw\u201d policy, Milei reduced inflation from over 200% annually to about 30%. Though this is still high by global standards, it has dropped to a level Argentina<\/a> had not seen in years.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, his policy of burning through dollar reserves to keep the peso overvalued has already led to the International Monetary Fund lending $20bn in April (of which $14bn has been disbursed) and the recent US bailout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The surge in imports is severely affecting Argentina\u2019s local industry and commerce. Since Milei took office in December 2023, people\u2019s purchasing power has fallen sharply, real wages have declined, more than 200,000 jobs have been lost, and about 18,000 businesses have closed.<\/p>\n

For Hern\u00e1n Letcher, director of the Centre for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA), the election result was a surprise not only because opinion polls had not predicted it but also because, \u201cwhen you look at the social indicators, none of them has shown or ever had a positive performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often say in Argentina that a cheap dollar wins elections,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Letcher also attributed the result to falling inflation, fear of returning to a past of deep economic crises and \u201canti-Peronism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA large part of society has a very stigmatised view of Peronism,\u201d said Letcher, referring to the political movement that emerged under three-time Argentinian president Gen Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

According to sociologist Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, Milei\u2019s campaign succeeded in spreading the idea that if he did not win, the economy would collapse. \u201cThat created a sort of panic among many people who don\u2019t want another devaluation, who know the cost is extremely high and therefore preferred to avoid a catastrophic scenario,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tokatlian noted that within Peronism there had been some hope that Trump\u2019s interference might backfire, as it had in Canada\u2019s elections and in Brazil, where tariffs imposed by the US president ended up boosting Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in Canada and Brazil those were backlashes caused by Trump\u2019s punitive measures. Here in Argentina, however, he was generous \u2026 and for some \u2013 not many, but for some \u2013 that support was at least the assurance that there wouldn\u2019t be a catastrophic economic crisis,\u201d said Tokatlian.<\/p>\n

Aquiles Ferrario, 82, who owns a bookshop in central Buenos Aires specialising in imported art and design books, voted for Peronism on Sunday and said he found it \u201calmost unbelievable that our people voted more guided by fear than by fury towards a government that does not hesitate to commit, spread and promote the most atrocious attitudes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat worries me is the future of our children, grandchildren and their successors \u2013 that they might end up living openly in a colony of the US, which I believe is the status that corresponds to a country whose economic and geopolitical policy depends entirely on the US and on a figure such as Donald Trump<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition posters scattered across Buenos Aires before Sunday\u2019s midterms showed president Javier Milei\u2019s name plastered over a US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-231938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}