The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, announced on Wednesday night a plan that provides for the reform of more than 300 rules to establish "the foundations of the reconstruction of the Argentine economy and return freedom and autonomy to individuals removing the State from them". With the avowed purpose of "Argentina being a world power", the aim of this ambitious plan is to "disarm the enormous amount of regulations that have prevented, hindered and stopped the economic growth of our country", he proclaimed.
Milei announced that in the coming days "extraordinary sessions" will be called at the Congress of the Nation and "a package of laws will be sent to accompany these reforms and advance the change process". The decree of urgent need (DNU) aims to transform "all" state-owned companies into joint-stock companies for their "subsequent privatization", in order to deregulate the country's economy.
The package that Milei will send to Parliament for approval includes the repeal of the state company regime and the regulations that prevent the privatization of public companies. "We received the worst inheritance in history", lamented the Argentine head of state when he announced a plan to put an end to the country's endemic fiscal deficit.
According to Milei, who just a month ago assumed the presidency after defeating in the second round the Minister of Economy of the Peronist government, Sergio Massa, Argentina can once again be "a world power", like at the beginning of the last century , but for this it will be necessary to deregulate.
The Government's program includes, among other novelties, the repeal of the rental law, the possibility of football clubs becoming joint-stock companies and the authorization of the total or partial transfer of the State's shareholding package to Aerolíneas Argentinas .
The decree, which will be sent to Congress to approve it in an extraordinary session, also provides for the repeal of the supply law, which involves sanctions on companies in cases of shortage of certain products, as well as the repeal of the law of gondolas, which obliges supermarkets to offer a minimum of products manufactured by small companies.
Among the measures announced is also the reform of the customs code to "facilitate" international trade and that "it is forbidden to ban exports", in the words of Milei.
After the Argentine president's announcement, hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the Congress headquarters to continue the protest that hours earlier had been carried out by some three thousand people who walked the streets of downtown Buenos Aires to end concentrating in the emblematic Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, seat of the presidency of the Republic.
The nocturnal mobilization was also felt in several neighborhoods of the capital where residents staged a loud protest from windows and balconies, banging pots and other household utensils. The protest action was felt in several areas of the city, including some of the most affluent, such as Palermo and Belgrano, but also in more modest neighborhoods such as Caballito, Almagro and Avellaneda.
Hours earlier, the first social protest against Milei ended with a tepid call and no notable incidents, largely due to the strong deployment of Federal Police and Gendarmerie riot units.
In the mobilisations, the warnings issued by the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, and by Milei himself weighed in that those who occupy public roads or cut roads will no longer receive social aid plans for the most disadvantaged, at times when a 40% of Argentine families live below the poverty line and poverty affects 10% of the population.
