Despite his austerity measures, the president’s party is expected to do well in the crucial October mid-term elections.
Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, has vetoed bills aimed at increasing pensions and disability spending, amid ongoing protests against his austerity fiscal policies, which are hitting many people in their day-to-day lives.
Milei’s administration announced the decision on Monday, less than three months before the crucial mid-term elections, saying the country does not have enough money to finance the legislation.
The vetoes can still be overturned by a two-thirds majority in the Congress, where politicians passed the laws in July.
The Argentinian president, whose party only holds a small number of seats in parliament, will hope for a repeat of last year, when he managed to successfully stop pension rises, thanks to support from the conservative PRO bloc.
In a statement published on X on Monday, the president’s office suggested that the now-vetoed laws had been approved by Congress in an “irresponsible manner”, without identifying funding sources.
It claimed that the spending rises would have amounted to 0.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and 1.68 percent of GDP in 2026.
“This president prefers to tell an uncomfortable truth rather than repeat comfortable lies,” the president’s office said.
“The only way to make Argentina great again is with effort and honesty, not the same old recipes,” it added, echoing the “make America great again” rhetoric of the United States President Donald Trump.
Since taking office in December 2023, Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, has slashed federal spending in an attempt to reduce inflation.
As part of these largescale economic changes, his government has removed tens of thousands of civil service jobs and made drastic cuts to social spending and public works.
In 2024, Milei’s policies saw Argentina gain its first annual surplus in 14 years, and in June, Argentina’s monthly inflation rate fell below 2 percent for the first time since 2020.
However, the president’s measures have been blamed for tipping millions of people into poverty in the first half of last year.
Unemployment has also grown, and prices are up 40 percent year-on-year, conditions which have led people to protest.
Researchers say pensioners, who have been at the centre of weekly demonstrations, are the hardest-hit group.
Despite the public protests, polls show that Milei’s party holds a sizeable lead ahead of October’s mid-term elections, which will be seen as a referendum on his first two years in office.