LUIS ROBAYO / AFP
Demonstrators in Buenos Aires in front of the police during a demonstration against Javier Milei’s reforms, December 27, 2023.
INTERNATIONAL – A month after his election, he is already facing anger from the streets. Several thousand people demonstrated this Wednesday, December 27 in Buenos Aires against a decree of massive deregulation of the economy by the new ultraliberal president Javier Milei. This is the third gathering of its kind in eight days.
In front of the courthouse on Wednesday, the demonstrators, at the call of several unions including the large central CGT, accompanied the filing of a legal action by unions contesting the constitutional nature of the “mega-decree” of December 20, as the press called it.
“We do not question the legitimacy of President Milei, but we want him to respect the separation of powers. Workers need to defend their rights when there is unconstitutionality”Gerardo Martinez, leader of the construction union, one of the organizers, told the press.
In the images above, you can see the crowds gathered in the capital as well as the clashes with law enforcement. The gathering dispersed peacefully after midday, but scattered groups continued to face the police, deployed in large numbers, who were trying to evacuate an avenue, giving rise to stampedes. Seven people were arrested for rebellion, according to several media.
“Restore economic and social order”
Milei published last week, ten days after taking office a “DNU” (necessity and emergency decree), which aims to modify or repeal more than 300 standards, in particular removing rent controls, state intervention to protect the prices of essential products, weakening worker protection, enabling privatizations.
At the same time, the president elected last month continued his revolution “liberal” by sending to Parliament, in extraordinary session since Tuesday and until the end of January, a set of projects or modifications of laws affecting many areas of the public and private sphere, from tax to electoral, matrimonial, or the control of demonstrations .
The package of provisions of more than 600 articles tabled on Wednesday, solemnly baptized “Law of bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines”aims according to the presidency “to restore the economic and social order based on the liberal doctrine embodied in the Constitution of 1853”in “defense of the life, liberty and property of Argentines”.
Austerity measures already in place
Jumbled together, it touches on the electoral system – aiming to eliminate compulsory primary elections, costly for the taxpayer according to the executive – and on the sovereign, by strengthening criminal sanctions for obstruction during demonstrations. And for pensions, by providing an automatic calculation method ” economically viable “.
This bill signals the government’s intention to move forward on the parliamentary front, while a lively debate has arisen in recent days between jurists on the constitutional nature, or not, of the “mega-decree” from December 20.
Very effective, however, are the first austerity measures announced in the first days of the Milei presidency.
Thus the devaluation of more than 50% of the peso, the national currency, and the imminent reduction, from January, of transport and energy subsidies, destined to affect the daily lives of millions of Argentines. With, for the government, the objective of a drastic reduction in Argentina’s chronic budget deficit, mired in inflation at 160% over one year.
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