Former President and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) published a 33-page document on Wednesday morning, arguing that Argentina is on the brink of its third debt crisis and that the Milei government’s economic proposals will spark an irreparable disaster that will prevent the country from developing.

A source close to Kirchner said she had published the text now because she believes Milei is trying to accelerate his plans to dollarize the Argentine economy.

Economy Minister Luis Caputo, whom Kirchner lambasts as a “failed functionary” in the text, responded on X by telling her to learn economics and blaming the past government for the current economic crisis.  

“I invite you to have a little dignity and stay quiet while upstanding Argentines make a huge effort to withstand and overcome the disaster left by your last four years in government,” he said.

CFK accuses Caputo, who at the time of the 2018 IMF deal was Macri’s finance secretary, of going on a “debt safari” that culminated in the government turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when it could no longer service the debts it had taken on. She blames the Fund for kickstarting Argentina’s current cycle of inflation.

With regard to Alberto Fernández’s 2019-2023 government, during which she was Vice President, she accuses the government of mishandling its foreign reserves. This, paired with the disastrous effects of the 2023 drought on state coffers, exacerbated Argentina’s economic crisis. In this context, she argues, the country has seen the rise of the phenomenon of people who are poor despite having formal jobs.

She describes Milei’s choice of Caputo as economy minister as “the most worrying” appointment of Macri’s former staff, but also highlights the presence of Macri’s former Central Bank Chief Federico Sturzenegger as an informal advisor. 

She writes that Milei’s government cannot be considered a fourth wave of neoliberalism because its actions so far place it “beyond the disruptive and take [the government] to a place that Argentina has never known.”

The government’s current policies, she warns, have put Argentine society “on the brink of shock” that will trigger increases in “unemployment and social desperation in a kind of planned chaos.” CFK added that she believes the president sees dollarizing the economy as the only way out.

She recognizes the legitimacy of the Milei government — but notes that, while he secured 56% of the presidential vote, his share of the vote in Congress is lower.

While she agrees that Argentina needs to examine the efficiency of the state, she argues that the fiscal deficit is not the root cause of the country’s economic crisis. 

According to Kirchner, dollarization would mean Argentina permanently losing its possibility to develop. Overturning legislation that places restrictions on how Argentina can take debt, enabling the Milei government to take large quantities of dollar–denominated debt, “would mean a truly irreparable catastrophe.”

The former president says that Argentina’s current fragmented Congress “will require a system of parliamentary accord” without falling into tit-for-tat bargaining.

She ends by arguing that trading resources for Argentina’s provinces in exchange for extraordinary executive powers, the ability to take debt, and massive privatizations would be unconstitutional.