Buenos Aires Herald editorial

Six months ago, we were asking whether Milei would be able to govern if he won. This week, we’re finding out.

For three agonizing days, deputies debated the so-called omnibus bill, the president’s opening gambit that seeks to restructure Argentine society. Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, they voted to approve the bill as a whole. Mere minutes earlier, a lengthy list was read out, slashing huge chunks of the bill. So large were the changes and so little was the previous notice that deputies had no time to see what had actually been cut. It was a vote on the unknown.

Starting on Tuesday, deputies will vote on each article individually and we’ll have a better idea of which of the original 664 survived. But we’ve learned a few things this week already.

First of all, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza may be a tiny minority, with just 15% of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, but enough other parties are sympathetic to his agenda that the coalition can negotiate a majority. In this case, it was delivered by the center and right, in the form of PRO, the UCR, Innovación Federal, and most of Hacemos Coalición Federal: 144 votes overall.

It’s not a done deal. Parts of that support may crumble when we reach the specifics on Tuesday. A majority takes 129 votes, so this 15-vote margin isn’t exactly a commanding lead. For now, Congress is certainly marking the limits of this government. But it looks like Milei could muster support for a conventional right-wing program that leaves out his more outré ideas.

More disturbingly, those who said Milei wouldn’t be able to implement his agenda without repression were absolutely right. Protesters outside Congress faced three nights of police brutality this week, as federal police, gendarmes, the naval prefecture, and anyone else Security Minister Patricia Bullrich could muster assailed protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons. 

Over 100 people were injured on Thursday night, according to rights watchdog CELS, including over 25 journalists. Most of those reporters were shot with rubber bullets — in one case, in the face. A human rights defender is fighting to save his eye after such an injury. 

The clampdown continued on Friday, with multiple photographers detained. Videos show them being bundled to the ground, while an América 24 presenter was pepper sprayed during a live broadcast. 

When they say “Long live liberty, dammit,” they clearly don’t mean freedom of expression.

The Herald extends our solidarity to our injured colleagues, especially to Ignacio Petunchi of Ambito, whose photos have often appeared on our pages. His beautiful, vibrant work couldn’t be done without getting up close to the scene of the events. Exercising the profession should never cost journalists our physical integrity.

In their book How Democracies Die, political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that dangerous leaders often get to power because more moderate, less charismatic establishment figures endorse them in the mistaken belief that they will be able to control them. 

We have already seen ex-President Mauricio Macri and Milei’s vanquished presidential rival-cum-Security Minister Bullrich back the president during the campaign. Now, swaths of Argentina’s moderate opposition seem poised to grant Milei the power to legislate on certain topics, in the apparent belief that that power will be used in good faith. In their haste for “change,” they’re opening Pandora’s box.

It would be a mistake to hand over powers to Milei, a man who, after less than two months, has already shown that he is willing to violate democratic norms and play constitutional hardball to get what he wants. And if his mega-decree to overturn or modify hundreds of laws didn’t prove it, the dozens of journalists injured in the streets this week surely should.

Cover photo credit: Ignacio Petunchi