“Today has been a historic day. These were the first words of Javier Milei from his electoral bunker after obtaining strong support in the national elections in mid-2018. term.

After months of anxiety - with a defeat in the legislative elections of the province of Buenos Aires on September 7, corruption scandals and an economic crisis for which he had to be helped by Donald Trump - the libertarian leader was able to celebrate this Sunday in Argentina.

With a higher electoral absenteeism than the last two elections in 2023 and 2021, Argentines renewed half of the Chamber of Deputies (127 legislators) and a third of the Upper House (24 senators), but, above all, they gave strong support to the libertarian president.

With 91% of the votes counted, Libertad Avanza, the official party, obtained 40.84% ????of the votes, with resounding victories in the city of Buenos Aires and the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe.

But, the big surprise was how it reduced the difference in the province of Buenos Aires, the main electoral district of country, where almost a month and half ago he had lost to Peronism by almost 14 points and in this election he defeated it by less than a point.

“Tonight we learned of very close results with a minimum of 0.5 against us. We were able to renew 15 deputies and one more,” said the Peronist governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof.

Peronism, united under the banner of Fuerza Patria, placed second nationally with a percentage of 31.62%.

The third force, with 7.13% of the votes, was the United Provinces alliance, a force of six governors that attempted to occupy the center of the political stage, between the libertarians and the Peronists. Only one of the six governors won in their province.

Fourth place went to the Left Front, with almost 4%.

All of this within the framework of a consolidation of the trend that was already seen in the regional elections that took place this year: a lack of interest in voting among a large part of the Argentine population.

The National Electoral Chamber reported that this Sunday, in a country where voting is mandatory, almost 68% of the electoral roll voted.

First consequences of the triumph

With these results, the ruling party will increase its presence in Congress, where it depends in its first two years on the votes of its allies to approve its projects, although the Senate will remain under the control of the opposition.

"We have to strengthen the reformist path in the next two years to consolidate growth and a definitive takeoff," said the president during the celebrations.

Furthermore, the election leaves Governor Kicillof very shaken, who after his party's success in the regional elections in Buenos Aires had positioned himself as the president's main obstacle in his seeking reelection in 2027.

Internationally, Milei will also be able to show her American counterpart and the International Monetary Fund that she has the majority support of the Argentine people to push through the pending measures in her economic program: pension, tax, and labor reform.

In recent weeks, Trump ordered unique financial aid from the US to Argentina to alleviate the growing political and economic problems of Milei, with whom she feels affinity.

So far, that aid has consisted of opening a $20 billion currency swap line between the two countries and allocating about $1 billion to buy Argentine pesos to prevent this currency from devaluing even further.

In the Fuerza Patria bunker, Peronist politician Juan Grabois took aim at La Libertad Avanza and said that his campaign manager “is called Donald Trump and the Minister of Economy, Scott Bessent (the US Treasury Secretary).”

After the results were announced, Argentine stocks rose sharply on the New York overnight market.