In yesterday’s crucial mid-term elections in Argentina, voters delivered a large and unexpected landslide for Javier Milei and his libertarian LLA party.
Libertarians in the country were worried whether LLA would receive more votes than the Peronist UP party. Not only did the libertarians beat the Peronists, they won by a staggering 41-24 margin.
What really matters, though, is that LLA picked up many more seats in the legislature. I showed a breakdown of partisan control in August. Here’s an updated version, with the changes from yesterday highlighted in red.
Does Milei and LLA have a majority in either the Chamber of Deputies or Senate?
In other words, there are still challenges. But there’s now hope. Fixing 70-plus years of bad policy doesn’t happen overnight!
Here are some details from a report in the Wall Street Journal by Samantha Pearson, Silvina Frydlewsky, and Santiago Pérez
President Javier Milei scored a decisive political win Sunday, strengthening his position in Argentina’s Congress and securing a lifeline for his audacious free-market revolution… With more than 99% of votes counted, Milei’s Freedom Advances party won almost 41% of the national vote, more than doubling its representation in Congress. …The result, stronger than most polls had predicted, gives Milei fresh political momentum after months of unrest over deep spending cuts… Argentina’s dollar-denominated government bonds surged Monday, with the election outcome bolstering Milei’s ability to implement the free-market reforms… Milei swept to power on the promise of radical change, pledging to end the nation’s decadeslong struggle with runaway inflation and economic ruin through relentless spending cuts. The messy-haired libertarian economist promised “anarcho-capitalism”… He also reduced energy subsidies and fired tens of thousands of public-sector employees. …The measures—part of what Milei calls shock therapy—have restored some credibility to Latin America’s third-largest economy.
The article also points out that voters were not willing to support the economic arsonists who had ruined the country’s economy.
While many voters were ready to criticize the president, they said handing back power to the leftist Peronist opposition was unthinkable. …The Peronist opposition—which has dominated Argentine politics for most of the past 80 years—performed below expectations. The party, founded by Juan and Eva Perón in the 1940s and long associated with Argentina’s welfare state, …failed to mobilize disenchanted voters as inflation eased from its historic highs. Middle-class Argentines also voted against the Peronists to prevent a financial meltdown and social turmoil after the pivotal election.
All of this is great news for Argentina.
What has me particularly excited, though, is that the victory for Milei and LLA is probably good news for America and other nations.
All around the world, I deal with politicians from right-of-center parties. In many cases, they know what should be done. But they often are scared that voters will revolt against them.
So I’ll close with this slide that I shared when giving a speech in Mexico last month. With Milei as a role model, we can now hope that cowardly politicians elsewhere (Republicans in the U.S., Tories in the U.K., Christian Democrats in Germany, etc) will follow his example.
The bottom line is that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher led the way for global economic reform 40-plus years ago. Now it’s Milei’s turn.
*I only celebrate Republican victories when I think the results increase the likelihood of good policy.
