Neighbors from several neighborhoods in the Argentine capital protested, on Wednesday night, to the sound of knocking on metal objects like frying pans, against the economic reform announced by the new president of the country, Javier Milei.
“Get out Milei!” was heard in the streets of Buenos Aires, where the then candidate of the far-right party La Libertad Avanza defeated his rival Sergio Massa, then Minister of Economy, by almost 12 percentage points.
The “panelaço” was heard for several minutes in different areas of the cityincluding some of the richest, such as Palermo and Belgrano, but also in more modest neighborhoodssuch as Caballito, Almagro and Avellaneda.
The protest arose after the ultraliberal economist announced the review or repeal of more than 300 regulations to deregulate the country’s economy, as well as the privatization of all state companies.
The reform, announced by Milei in a speech broadcast live on Argentine radio and televisionincludes housing laws, “to get the real estate market working well again and to renting is not an odyssey”.
The economist also announced the “modernization of labor legislation to facilitate the process of creating real jobs”, the modification of company law so that football clubs can transform into public limited companies, and a long series of other measures in the tourism, internet satellites, pharmacy, winegrowing and international trade sectors.
The Argentine head of state also promised to revoke the state-owned enterprise regime and the rules that prevent the privatization of public companies.
The ultra-liberal economist, elected in November, stated that he wanted to transform all state companies into public companies, as a first step towards “later privatization.”
Milei announced during the electoral campaign his intention to put up for sale the airline Aerolíneas Argentinas and the oil company YPF, two giants of the South American country’s economy.
Hours before the President’s announcement, some three thousand people had taken to the streets of Buenos Aires, in a demonstration called by social and left-wing organizations against the policies of the new head of state.
This despite the fact that Milei and the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, warned that whoever occupied or blocked streets would stop receiving social assistance, at a time when four out of ten Argentine families live below the poverty line.
Milei had already announced on December 12 a first series of austerity measures, including a devaluation of more than 50% of the Argentine peso and the reduction, starting in January, of transport and energy subsidies.
Source: TSF
