Far from putting “the final nail in the coffin of Kirchnerismo”, President Javier Milei breathed fresh life into it on 7 September. Milei polarised legislative elections in Argentina’s most populous province of Buenos Aires, which he presented as tantamount to a plebiscite on his government. His far right La Libertad Avanza (LLA) and allies then lost badly. Markets reacted with dismay to the scale of the defeat for Mileiismo, with the peso plummeting, along with bonds and the Merval, the main index of the Buenos Aires stock exchange, and country risk soaring. The result casts into doubt the LLA’s prospects of significantly expanding its presence in the federal congress after mid-term elections on 26 October; this could see Milei’s reform agenda stymied by the opposition in the remaining two years of his term, scuppering his re-election ambitions in 2027. It also suggests that Kirchnerismo, or more accurately the left-wing of the Peronist movement feared by the markets, is not moribund but alive and kicking.End of preview - This article contains approximately 1743 words.
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