The radical reforms of the Argentine president have a heavy impact on the population, but they are optimistic about the future / Article

However, his attitude towards civil society and democratic processes does not inspire optimism, said Guillermo Correa in a conversation with Latvijas Radio, who has been associated with civil society projects in his native Argentina for many years, but since 2016 he is a member of the global alliance of civil society organizations and activists “CIVICUS”. Member of the Board. At the end of April, Korea also visited Riga to participate in a meeting of alliance activists organized by the Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation.

The bitter reforms have yielded results

Argentina experienced a political earthquake in November as the populist Javier Millay unexpectedly won the presidential election.

He took up a chainsaw in his election campaign and announced that he would reduce the bloated public administration to end the “orgy of spending public money”. After taking office, Milej has fulfilled some of his promises, as the president halved the number of government ministers, fired 50,000 civil servants, and canceled subsidies for fuel and public transport.

Millais also embarked on painful economic reforms, devaluing the peso, the national currency, by more than 50% and removing price controls. These measures, together with the abolition of subsidies, led to a sharp decline in the purchasing power of the population, leading to a decrease in consumption and economic growth.

But the bitter medicine has paid off as the government has managed to pass a national budget with a surplus for the first time in more than a decade, while high inflation has eased.

At the same time, economists estimate that about 57% of Argentina’s 46 million inhabitants currently live below the poverty line.

Expert: Despite the difficulties, Argentinians are optimistic about the future

Evaluating Milej’s radical policy, Argentinian activist Korea said in a conversation with Latvijas Radio that if the president maintains this policy, he will manage to fix Argentina’s macroeconomics.

“I’m more concerned about the microeconomics because we don’t know what will happen to medium and small businesses, what will happen to unemployment, and how he will be able to restore the economy, because now we have very high inflation and economic growth rates are falling,” Correa said.

This year, Miley’s government will devote all its attention to stabilizing the economy, as next year’s congressional elections are scheduled, which will be very important, since the party represented by the president currently does not have a majority in parliament.

“If the government succeeds in fixing the economy, then perhaps the population will vote for it in the elections. Currently, the government does not have a majority in Congress, which prevents it from passing many of its own proposed bills. But this may change next year, because people do not vote in elections with human rights in mind, but with “If this government manages to get more money in the wallets of the citizens, then the voters will reward the government by voting for it in the Congress elections,” said the expert.

Despite the fact that Millay’s reforms are painfully felt by many Argentines and there have been regular large-scale demonstrations by unions and students in the capital, Buenos Aires, the people of Argentina are said to be optimistic about their future.

“For the first time in the country’s history, there is such a situation that when asked how you feel now, most people will answer that their situation is terrible, but when asked how you see your life in a year, they express hope that it will be better.

And it never happened before, because usually people answered that they are having a hard time now, but it will be worse in a year. This is the first time that Argentines perceive the current reality as difficult, but think that a year from now it will be better than now,” Korea said.

Korea added that a large number of people who voted for Miley in the election are currently suffering the most from the president’s reforms, with rising costs for electricity, public transport, health care and education. However, the latest polls show that Miley is supported by around 60% of the Argentine population.

Criticizes the president’s desire to make decisions alone

At the same time, Korea criticized Miley for wanting to make decisions alone, thereby departing from the norms adopted in a democratic country. For this reason, Miley’s critics tend to call him a dictator.

“He [Milejs] is not a fan of transparent and thorough decision-making process, which is why some people call him that. Of course, we are keeping a close eye on his attitude towards the law and civil society. We do not expect good news for civil society.

This government doesn’t want middlemen in their relationship with the people, so I think they see the non-governmental sector as something that comes between the government and the people,”

said Korea.

In terms of foreign policy, Milej tries to strengthen relations with the United States, so he supports Israel in the war against the terrorist group “Hamas” and Ukraine in the war against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended Miley’s inauguration in person in December, and Miley plans to visit Kyiv soon.

When asked about the attitude of the Argentine public towards the war in Ukraine, Correa said that, in general, the population is on the side of Ukraine. But the previous government had closer relations with Russia, so there is also a part of the population that is not against Ukraine, but takes a neutral position, given these earlier ties with Russia.

Korea believes that the desire throughout Latin America to take a neutral position against the war in Ukraine is related to the many domestic political problems, the desire not to lose trade ties and simply being geographically far from the war zone.