Javier Milei’s party wins with 40.8 percent

Parliamentary election in Argentina

Surprise success – Javier Milei’s party is clearly ahead

The economy is not really taking off, and corruption scandals surrounding the ultra-liberal president are tarnishing his image. But the Argentines give him another chance.

Argentine President Javier Milei’s party won the midterm elections on Sunday (local time) with 40.8 percent of the vote for the lower house. After counting more than 90 percent of the votes, the Peronist opposition came to 24.5 percent. Accordingly, Milei’s party will receive 64 seats, while the Peronists will have 31 seats.

The result is considered a clear victory for Milei. His party, along with its allies, needs 86 seats in the lower house to prevent the opposition from overruling a presidential veto.

The vote, in which half of the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate were replaced, was also seen as a mood test at the midpoint of Milei’s presidency. With his tough austerity policy he has managed to balance the budget and reduce inflation. But the hoped-for economic upswing has so far failed to materialize, and there have been a number of corruption scandals in his environment.

So far, Milei only has a few members of her own in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Most recently, he ruled largely through decrees, and his legislative initiatives were repeatedly stopped in Congress. So Milei’s ambitious reform agenda has stalled.

With Sunday’s result, Milei, together with his allies in Congress, could get at least a third of the mandates and thus the necessary quorum to defend his presidential veto against parliamentary decisions.