Argentina: President Javier Miley announces massive economic deregulation

He promised “chainsaw” cuts and proceeded to do them. After announcing a first round of measures on Dec. 12, including a shock devaluation of more than 50% of the peso and cuts in transport and energy subsidies, Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Miley announced a sweeping deregulation of Latin America’s third-largest economy on Wednesday. America. He signed an executive order designed to change or eliminate more than 300 standards.

“The goal is to begin the road to rebuilding the country, returning freedom and autonomy to the people and beginning to disarm the huge number of regulations that have constrained, impeded and prevented economic growth in our country,” Javier Miley said in his broadcast speech. on radio and television.

Among the announced measures is the repeal of the rent law, “so that the real estate market can begin to function normally again,” explained the president, who was elected in November and took office on December 10. Laws preventing the privatization of state-owned companies, such as the airline Aerolineas Argentinas or the oil group YPF, should also be repealed. All public companies will be converted into public limited liability companies with a view to privatizing them, Javier Miley said.

The head of state also announced “modernization of labor laws” to create more jobs, changes to company law so that football clubs can transform into limited companies, as well as a long series of other deregulatory measures in the tourism, healthcare, internet, air transport, pharmacy, viticulture and even trade.

Concert “Pots and Pans” and the first event

The decree, which was published at midnight in the official journal, will have to be examined within ten days by a joint commission consisting of deputies and senators, but will only be declared invalid if it is rejected by both houses of parliament, it was explained to AFP. constitutional lawyer Emiliano Vitaliani. The president’s far-right party is in the minority in parliament, so he will have to seek support from the center-right coalition Juntos por el Cambio, as well as independent deputies and senators.

The 53-year-old economist was elected on a program of government downsizing, political caste cleansing and shock therapy to clean up a country where inflation has topped 160% in one year and where more than 40% of the population is poor. People. Javier Miley wants to cut government spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Argentina has been involved in “a series of crises over the last hundred years, all of which have the same cause: budget deficits,” he justified in his speech.

The president’s address was met with a chorus of protests in several neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, with thousands of people spontaneously taking to the streets near parliament to express their opposition. A few hours before the presidential address, thousands of demonstrators had already marched in the capital at the call of the left-wing organizations Polo Obrero and the Socialist Movement. This was the first demonstration against Javier Miley since he came to power.