Argentine President Javier Milei has declared his intention to submit a bill to Congress that would prohibit the approval of national budgets featuring fiscal deficits. The leader announced his intention to “wall” his austerity measures during a nationwide radio and TV broadcast on Friday night, coinciding with his veto of recently passed Congressional laws aimed at increasing pensions and disability funds.
Milei remarked that although those initiatives appeared to be “a noble goal,” they were “nothing more than demagogic deception” and charged the politicians advocating for them with trying to undermine the “stability that we have worked so hard to achieve” in a bid to reclaim power. Milei stated, “It would even be politically beneficial” to support those laws, “because many voters would have more money in their pockets in the months leading up to the national elections.” However, he added that they would ultimately lead to an increase in inflation. “My task is not to look good, it is to do good,” Milei stated. “Even if they assert that I am cruel.”
In his address, delivered in the presence of the economic cabinet, Milei stated that he would direct the Economy Ministry to prevent the Treasury from financing primary expenditures via monetary issuance. He stated that the government was already executing that measure, but that it is now “formalizing” it. In another passage, Milei likened his administration to “an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object,” a phrase that circulated widely on social media, with some commentators noting its resemblance to dialogue delivered by the Joker, a character from The Dark Knight.
“The unstoppable force is our determination to change the economic course by implementing a program that has never been done before in Argentine history,” he articulated. “The immovable object is politics’ reliance on unsubstantiated public expenditure.” He stated that the forthcoming October midterm elections would “settle this paradox once and for all.” “We are not going to revert to previous conditions, we are not going to retrace the trajectory of deterioration,” he stated. “And I say to Congress: if you wish to reverse course, you will need to remove me from office in a manner that is final.”
His address faced considerable scrutiny from his political adversaries. In her customary opening, “Che, Milei,” former two-time President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took to X to assert that Milei has been dishonest. She stated that wages have not kept pace with inflation and that the government will need to address its “sky-high interest rates” through the issuance of money. “More than feet first, you will be taken out of the Casa Rosada in a straitjacket,” she added.