The Argentine President Javier Milei he is in Rome for the funeral of the Holy Father, his compatriot Jorge Bergoglio, but the his head remained in Buenos AiresThe ultra-liberal leader is in fact going through a contradictory moment: praised abroad, in particular by the International Monetary Fund which has just granted him a new $20 billion loan, has more than one instead headache at home, where after a year and a half of objectives achieved, albeit with brutal methods, something seems to have broken between the Casa Rosada and the Argentines. Elected by popular acclaim at the end of 2023 in a country in full recession, Milei in 2024 succeeded with chainsaw blows bring down inflation, restore international credibility to Argentina (at least on the financial side) and even to reduce poverty, just as theopposition and trade unions they accused him of defend the interests of the rich worsening the conditions of workers. A few weeks ago, however, just on the eve of the first significant electoral round during his presidential mandate, the bomb exploded in Milei's hand. scandal of Libra cryptocurrency, a real scam sponsored by him and that deceived at least 40 thousand small savers, causing them to lose a total of 4 billion dollars.
Milei's descent: consensus crumbles
So when it's missing less than a month until the legislative elections of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (part of the City Council of the capital will be renewed, calling over 3 million eligible voters to vote), the president's party, La Libertad Avanza, is then difficulty in the polls and according to several research institutes cited by El Pais it is growing negative opinion towards Milei: for UdeSa the negative image among voters has gone from 44% last November to 51%, for the Brazilians of Atlas (among the few to have already predicted Milei's victory in 2023) from 42% to 50%, for Zubán Córdoba the discontent even reaches 58,5%. More generally, according to the Universidad de San Andrés the 61% of Argentines are dissatisfied of how things are going in the country: beyond the objectives achieved at a financial level, the improvement in daily life has not arrived for everyone and above all it seems that many citizens did not like the recourse to a new financing by the IMF, after Milei had defined this several times in the past “immoral” instrument” and not suitable to solve Argentina's problems. “2024 went better than expected for the president, but 2025 started worse than expected,” the political scientist summarized Lucas Romero, by Synopsis.
Towards October: A Parliament to be Conquered, Between Fragile Alliances and Accusations of Treason
La campaign for the assembly of Buenos Aires is just the appetizer of that for the national legislative elections which will be held in October, but it is already very heated since the Freedom Advances is doing everything he can to gain as many seats as possible, given that the party that elected the president is still very weak in the current national parliament. Among the controversy the most heated is that of theformer president Mauricio Macri, leader of the Republican Party, who openly accused some of his former colleagues of having sold out to Milei: "All those who had a price have already been bought", said Macri criticizing the exponents of Republican Proposal who passed through the ranks of La Libertad Avanza right in the middle of negotiations for a coalition agreement. If this agreement were to fail, it would be a very bad sign in view of the national legislative elections in October, a real test of midterm in which Milei will be played a lot. At the moment Macri's Republicans are part of the government, but among their voters, who are certainly not chainsaw fanatics, there is a growing intolerance for the actions of the Casa Rosada. In this climate, in the capital it is another controversy has erupted, this one decidedly more folkloristic but which gives the idea of a campaign of great tensions within the right itself.
The most surreal controversy of the campaign erupts, here is the "bathroom war"
Former Governor of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, Republican, has launched a The proposal which is causing quite a bit of discussion: to solve the problem of the "stink of urine" in the streets, it would like to force bars and restaurants in the capital to grant free access to the bathrooms for passers-by and not just for customers, as is the manual of city etiquette. According to Larreta, there is already a law that requires that in restaurants there be a bathroom reserved for pedestrians, for those who enter only to relieve themselves: "It should just be respected", said the Macrista representative. Immediate and Milei candidates' reactions were fierce: "Forcing bars and restaurants to do this is against private property. Just because a place is open to the public doesn't mean it isn't still a private place, free to impose its own rules. It would be like asking Larreta to let passers-by into his bathroom," he wrote on X Alberto Tiburcio Benegas LynchThe only thing missing was the controversy over the bathrooms.
