Javier Milei and his Libertad Avanza movement went further than they themselves expected. With more than 90% of the ballots counted, the ruling party secured 64 seats in the Lower House and won six of the eight districts that renewed representatives to the Senate.
Milei’s option achieved an advantage of 40.84% in the national vote, for 34.8% of the Peronist opposition grouped in Fuerza Patria, in the elections for deputies, while in the elections for senators it achieved 42.4%, compared to 36.4% for the progressive coalition.
The 17,398 electoral centers in Argentina closed their tables at 6:00 p.m. local time, as planned, 10 hours after the start of the process, amid the low influx of voters to determine a composition of Congress on which Milei’s ability to advance his austerity policy depended, and even his options to count on the financial aid offered by Donald Trump.
The National Electoral Directorate reported that participation in this process was just over two-thirds of the electorate: 67.85%, three points below the figures recorded in the previous midterm elections, held in 2021 in full confinement due to Covid-19, and the lowest in the democratic era.
It was a day that passed in the midst of normality, without major incidents, with 35.9 million activated voters, and in the midst of intense polarization that made Milei’s final avalanche unpredictable.
The Single Paper Ballot (BUP) was put into practice for the first time, questioned by Peronist factors, such as the governor of Buenos Aires Axel Kicillof, who had just led the opposition to a devastating victory in the provincial legislative elections in early September with the previous electoral ballot format.
But the most irregular thing that happened in the capital was not the introduction of the new card, but the advantage of Libertad Avanza, which with 97.2% of the votes counted, surpassed Peronism in Buenos Aires by just over half a percentage point: 41.5% for Diego César Santilli over 40.9% for Jorge Taiana.
Voters went to the polls to renew 50% of the Lower House, with 127 seats of national deputies in dispute, and a third of the Senate, 24 seats in total.
The process was held in light of recent results that were adverse to the Libertad Avanza of President Javier Milei in the provincial legislative elections of Buenos Aires, where Peronism grouped in the Fuerza Patria movement swept over the libertarian options.
A key pulse for Milei
It was a key election for Milei to consolidate the legislative strength that he lacked until now, and that has marked his ability to make changes during the first two years of his government. The process had acquired a plebiscitary value, since it was expected to reveal the position of the voters regarding Milei’s policy of austerity and fiscal rigor.
It could even directly affect the $20 billion financial aid package promised by Trump, and then conditional on “a socialist or communist not winning.”
With the new composition of Congress, Milei is closer to adding the 86 votes he needs, counting on his allies, to prevent the opposition from overriding his presidential vetoes and being able to block initiatives that threaten the fiscal balance he has achieved.
“How beautiful purple looks on the country!” celebrated the president in his first public statement after knowing the results, in reference to the color that identifies his party.
With a more conciliatory and less challenging tone in his speech, Milei defined this Sunday’s result as a “hinge” moment, which will allow his party to go from 37 to 64 seats, a jump that he can now interpret as an endorsement of a management in which he has reduced monthly inflation from 12.8% when he took office to 2.1 in September.
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