By María Josefina Arce
Javier Milei got off on the wrong foot. Only a month into his term as President of Argentina, the ultra-right-winger has only 44% approval. His Decree of Necessity and Urgency, which includes more than 300 measures, has provoked a broad rejection by a large part of the Argentineans.
The President has already had his first setbacks. The courts stopped the implementation of the chapter referring to labor issues, which meant the loss of workers' rights.
For the next few days, trade union organizations have called for marches and a general strike for the 24th, in rejection of the neoliberal shock plan, which must be evaluated by Congress, although a large part of it is being applied.
Since the first day, the subway, bus and train fares have been raised, which has had a strong impact on many families.
Already last December, a few days after Milei took office, Argentines expressed in the streets their discontent with the provisions of the new government, which they said are leaving thousands of families without food, retirees in destitution and salaried workers with the threat of losing their jobs.
The constitutionality of the so-called Necessity and Urgency Decree is also widely questioned, since this mechanism, regulated since 1994, is reserved for very specific and limited circumstances, such as a natural and social catastrophe, which, according to experts, is not the case.
According to the consulting firm Zubán-Córdoba, 56% of those surveyed consider the decree unconstitutional and believe that both the justice system and Congress should work to repeal it.The President also faces opposition to his so-called Omnibus Law, which aims to grant Milei all the power until December 2025 and to relegate the role of the two chambers of Congress.
The ultra-right-winger would then have the way open to make decisions in key sectors such as the economic, financial, health, energy and social security sectors, among others.
Undoubtedly, the next months will be decisive, the government is planning new measures, but the truth is that Milei, who defines himself as a libertarian, is already facing a strong rejection from a large part of the citizenship, which has not seen any protection for the most vulnerable.
