President Javier Milei launched La Libertad Avanza (LLA) — which until now was a coalition — as a party of its own, which will allow it to compete independently in the 2025 legislative elections. During a rally on Saturday night, he blamed the previous administration for Argentina’s soaring poverty rate and said his own is “the best government in history.”

“Each of the things that seemed impossible, like lowering inflation, helping the economy to start recovering, […] end security problems and corruption within social organizations, lowering public spending and fixing the Argentine Central Bank’s issues, we are doing it,” Milei told hundreds of his supporters in Parque Lezama. “Therefore, have no doubt: we are the best government in Argentine history.”

The LLA coalition which won the 2023 elections was created as a temporary alliance of several small right and far right-wing parties, including Milei’s Partido Libertario and Partido Demócrata, in which Vice President Victoria Villarruel is a strong leader. According to Argentine electoral law, such coalitions must be dissolved 60 days after the election.

However, now LLA has been launched as a national party, allowing it to run in upcoming mid-term legislative elections without the need to gather support from other parties. Although it is common to form coalitions for elections, they are generally led by one larger, established party, while LLA was made up mostly of smaller, unknown parties.

Presidency Secretary Karina Milei — the president’s sister, whom he refers to as “The Boss” in the masculine Spanish form, El Jefe — was appointed as the head of the new national LLA party.

“I have commanded my sister, the true boss, to carry the torch of freedom, creating La Libertad Avanza at a national level,” the president said referring to Karina Milei. “I ask you to accompany The Boss to carry that torch in every corner of the country so that Argentina can become a true worldwide powerhouse that embraces the ideas of freedom.”

Karina Milei had taken to the podium earlier to introduce her brother in her first official public speech and addressed the LLA supporters ahead of the legislative elections.

“Today we are governing as a minority against politicians that have been organized for decades to stay in power,” she said in her 15-minute speech. “They are in Congress, they are in unions, they are in social organizations, and in the media. They are everywhere.”

The president’s last political rally was four months ago, when he gave a private musical show at the Luna Park stadium. On Saturday, he chose to speak at Lezama Park, the same place where he closed his presidential campaign back in 2023 and his first political bid for national deputy in 2021.

Milei’s speech

Dressed in his staple black leather jacket and introduced as a rock star, Milei outlined what his administration considers to be the wins of his young presidency and blamed his predecessor former president Alberto Fernández for the country’s socioeconomic problems.

“Although [the previous government] left us with 45% of poverty, and although we stopped the crisis and put the macroeconomy back on track, poverty grew to 55% in the first quarter of the year,” Milei admitted.  “But poverty in the second quarter of the year was 51%, therefore poverty is starting to decrease in Argentina.”

Argentina’s national statistics institute revealed on Thursday that 52.9% of Argentines lived in poverty in the first six months of 2024 while 18.1% were destitute. It is the country’s highest poverty rate in 20 years.

“In the past four months, salaries have beaten inflation, restoring employees’ real purchase power,” Milei said in his speech while celebrating measures taken by ministers Luis Caputo (Economy), Federico Sturzenegger (Deregulation), and Sandra Pettovello (Human Capital), among others.

Vice President Victoria Villarruel and Foreign Minister Diana Mondino were the only high-ranking government officials absent from the rally. Villarruel had been one of the main speakers at the first Lezama Park rally in 2021 but has missed several key events during the LLA presidency due to alleged escalating tensions with the Milei siblings. 

“This really is the best government in history,” Milei said. “From now on, there will only be good news: in 2025, we will win the elections by a landslide.”

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