Argentina: a second general strike in five months against Javier Milei

A slow day that looks like a holiday, but not a country completely at a standstill: Argentina experienced its second general strike on Thursday in barely five months of the Javier Milei government, a sign that the street is raising its voice against the ultraliberal president , still straight in its austerity program, with initial ambivalent results. No trains or metro, few buses, public schools and banks closed... Buenos Aires rang hollow, without a good part of the 3 million people who pass through there every day. But a number of shops and restaurants remained open, against a backdrop of traffic similar to a Sunday, observed in various sectors of the capital.

Apart from the deserted stations, the most striking image, some 400 flights were canceled, affecting 70,000 passengers, according to the Latin American Air Transport Association. “The strike has no force,” claimed Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who denounced cases of buses being stoned while they were circulating. His Transport counterpart affirmed that public transport was operating at 40%. The government also cited a study by a private university, UADE, according to which the 24-hour strike cost the economy half a billion dollars.

“The strike hurt them”, its “success shows that the government must take note”, retorted the CGT, a powerful Peronist union co-organizing the strike “against an adjustment policy which pushes us to extremes”. “Things are very bad, the protest is understandable, people can only buy the essentials,” complained Alejandro Felippe, a 59-year-old cafe owner who opened on Thursday, but was sorry for the few customers.

Very supported in the public sector, more differently in the private sector, the 24-hour strike seemed much more followed than that of January 24, a semi-failure then mocked by the government as the "fastest strike in history", announced in December 18 days after the inauguration of Javier Milei. This time again, the presidency denounced a “strictly political” strike, by unions which go “against what people voted for five months ago”. “This government has had more strikes than reforms, it’s quite extravagant,” quipped the presidential spokesperson.

In fact, the last month has seen almost daily days of action or demonstrations in Buenos Aires, although of unequal scale: “the increase in social conflict”, according to the CGT. However, the impact of Thursday's strike seems uncertain. Less in any case than the large marches in defense of the public university of April 24 (one million demonstrators in the country), the strongest mobilization hostile to Mr. Milei to date, and “a lesson for him: the first time that he hit a wall in public opinion, because what was at stake was a collective, transversal good,” said political scientist Gabriel Vommaro.

But “this should not be overinterpreted,” adds the analyst. Because elected as a “providential man who arrived to resolve problems that the previous elites had left lying around”, Javier Milei “retains in public opinion cores of support unscathed, or at least fairly solid”.

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In fact, despite a slight shift in April, several recent polls show Javier Milei oscillating between 45 and 50% positive image he was elected with 56%. Spectacular stability for a leader who inflicted in a few months, between devaluation, "liberated" prices, "cut-off" spending and public aid, "the greatest adjustment in the history of humanity", like the president " anarcho-capitalist” likes to remind us. Depending on whether they invoke the balance of accounts, the reduction in country risk, the micro-social impact or lost jobs, the opposition and government throw clues at each other.

Inflation decelerating, from 25% for December alone to 9% predicted for April, or brutal recession with -3.2% decline in activity over one year. “Historic feat” (dixit Milei) of a surplus budget in the first quarter – unprecedented since 2008 – or a dark record of poverty (41.7% officially), never seen since 2006. “Useless sacrifice”, denounces the ex-president Cristina Kirchner. “Our plan is working,” trumpets Javier Milei. But economists, including liberals, are worried about “what’s next”.

“Milei has (...) only one variable in mind: inflation,” said Carlos Rodriguez, once close to the president. “The adjustment plan is simply to pay nothing, with these first months a reduction in costs in all sectors. But I don’t see a plan.”