Argentina after one year of President Milei | DW Documentary

He pledged to attack the system with a chainsaw. Javier Milei loves to provoke a reaction. Many Argentines see him as their last hope of escape from economic crisis.

Formerly a political outsider, in November 2023 he was elected president. A libertarian and self-described anarcho-capitalist, Milei has likened the state to a criminal organization that bullies its citizens. Taxes, he says, amount to stealing.

He believes in the power of the free market and self-regulation; slashing public spending, and reducing state intervention to a minimum. Argentine society is divided. First there has to be economic growth, because the economy is fundamental to a country's freedom.

A state’s image is based on strength! We can't buy anything. We have cows everywhere, but can't afford milk.

I like Milei's policies. They’re the right thing to do. Life will get better, and much faster than people think.

All he does is boast that he has lowered inflation, but at what cost? When people have no money? It’s just after 6 a.

m. and we’ve come to a wholesale market on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Businessman Diego Fenoglio comes here in person every week to buy ingredients for his products.

He makes ice cream, chocolate and fine pastries And he’s very picky. Tamarind? That’s right… It’s not yet sweet enough?

Previous politicians used to talk badly about business leaders. But we’re the ones who create jobs. We’re the ones who give money to the State, to distribute as it sees fit.

When Milei took office, inflation in Argentina was over 200%. Milei campaigned on a promise to bring it down. Diego says that prices are now finally stabilizing.

Good, thank you, it's very tasty. Sweet, but it lacks acidity. There’s much more competition when prices stabilize.

With inflation, you never know how much things are really worth. I think Milei's approach is good. He’s finally taking care of certain sectors of the economy which, in my opinion, offer Argentina excellent prospects for growth.

Diego's company Rapanui is now active in 29 countries, although it’s still family-owned. It has dozens of stores in Argentina, 10 in the capital alone. A taste of luxury for those who can afford it.

Handmade chocolates, new ice cream flavors every week, all created in-house. The boss is a big fan of radical economic policies. If there’s no competition, prices won’t improve and neither will the quality.

So I think it’s very important. The good thing about Milei is his honesty. He's like a child, if you lie to him, he gets angry and shouts.

And yes, he shouts a lot. But at the same time, he's very transparent. What he says, he does.

And that's rare in a politician. Diego Fenoglio is not alone in his opinion. Despite rigorous austerity measures, most Argentines continue to back Milei.

In Buenos Aires alone, over 50% of the electorate voted for him, backing his pledge to slash public spending. An omnipresent state that gives everything, that doesn't believe people should be rewarded according to their merits, that thinks everyone has the right to get something and no one has the duty to do anything that’s what Milei has turned away from and I celebrate that. From an economic point of view, I think he is sensible.

But he's a bit off beam politically. I have the impression that he lacks the ability to engage in dialogue. The capital Buenos Aires reflects the stark contrasts in Argentine society.

And the gap between rich and poor has widened further since Javier Milei took office. According to the World Bank, Argentina has the fourth highest level of income inequality worldwide. The situation is worse only in South Africa, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

Poverty has risen sharply under Milei's harsh austerity measures. More than half the population are now classed as poor. Many public employees have lost their jobs and many social programs have been cut.

The shock therapy is hitting both those who were already poor and the former middle class. Solidarity kitchens seek to help with the bare necessities. But they themselves have had all their funding cut by the Milei administration.

So volunteers are now left to give out food financed through donations. Is there any more food? No, there’s nothing left.

Many are pinning their last hopes on the churches, which are doing what they can to alleviate the crisis. A Franciscan mission runs one of the soup kitchens in Buenos Aires, called “The Good Samaritan”. Every Friday, it opens its doors.

And more and more people are coming. Here they cook for the poor. The diners include around 40 children who are undernourished.

They receive meals here regularly. Food prices have doubled since the end of 2023 The number of people coming to us has increased. We used to serve about 180 meals every Friday, now the number has risen to 240.

So what’s changed? The situation is very difficult. People tell us that they are in need.

They're not homeless, but they have to come because they can't afford to buy food. We really see a change. Have this!

I need a t-shirt. For yourself? Yes.

And leggings too. I’ll take a look. Do you like this one?

Argentina’s middle class is shrinking. Today, nearly six out of ten Argentines are living in poverty. The Franciscan friars want to help the homeless in particular, so they can find a place to live and find new hope.

So what is Milei’s solution for poverty in Argentina? Subsidies and the welfare state are in his eyes exactly the wrong way to combat poverty. He wants to reduce the role of the state as far as possible.

I share the view that the smaller the state’s role is and the more it fulfills only its basic function, the better it will be for the nation. That is Javier Milei's vision. Alejandro Chafuen is a leading figure in the libertarian movement and was long president of the Atlas Network, which connects hundreds of libertarian groups worldwide.

Milei and Chafuen believe the elites associated with previous governments now need to adapt to the new era. I hope that those who have benefited so much from the state so far, will pay their employees higher wages when revenues increase at some point. And that they take the risk of investing.

The only way to reduce poverty in the long term is to create a world in which entrepreneurs are taken seriously again. Milei says openly that social justice is nonsense. He says the state should disappear, only it’s not possible yet.

Lawyer and writer Juan Grabois is a leading voice advocating social justice in Argentina. A former candidate for president, he’s seen as a beacon of hope for the left. Milei advocates an anarcho-capitalist philosophy.

In other words he doesn’t want a political government, but one that is oriented towards the economy and capitalism. According to his thinking, the heroes in humanity are not doctors, teachers or firemen. They’re the leaders of big business.

But many young people have come out in support of Milei. In fact 70% of voters under 24 voted for him. 23-year-old Fabrizio Ferrari is proud to be a member of the libertarian movement.

Like President Milei, he believes that the state’s role should be limited to just a few functions and that large parts of it need to be abolished. We voted for Milei because we see in him a person who stands up for his convictions. I also stand up for my convictions.

And I’m optimistic, I’m convinced we’ll be better off tomorrow if we do things fairly and correctly. In the past, most of Argentina’s universities were financed by the state. But in recent decades, many private institutions have been added.

Fabrizio is at a private university too. He has no problem with the extreme cuts now being made in education. There has to be more economic growth.

We need more companies so that they can provide work for people. This is important for me, and for many other young people. When we graduate we want to look forward to a good future, and that means we’ll need a place to work.

The city of Córdoba is almost two hours by plane from Buenos Aires. 74% of the electorate here voted for Milei's right-wing party alliance “La Libertad Avanza”. That was the highest level of support in the country.

The Córdoba region is wealthy and conservative. Nevertheless, even here the cuts are being felt, and the existing gap between rich and poor has grown. The local university is one of the oldest in the country.

But for years, it’s had financial difficulties. Milei has now introduced drastic cuts in education and science. The Education Ministry has been abolished, new university projects canceled and the budget for higher education slashed by 70%.

Argentina was one of the first countries in South America where universities were free of charge. If Argentina has a large middle class, it’s thanks to the public universities, which made it possible for people to improve their standing. The children of working-class families were able to study and take on a profession.

Sofi Armando is 25 years old, and a law student. She has taken part in every protest against Milei in her city. It is a clear attack on the public sector, including public universities.

Milei calls them places of brainwashing, and says everything is ideologized and politicized, that the universities have been conquered by Marxism. All these things he says sound a bit paranoid. As I see it, universities are the basis for a fair class distribution, for the distribution of wealth and income.

That's why this attack is so bad, because it's the universities that give access to a much more equal and even liberal system. As a result, struggling universities are now being cut even further. And students are barely getting by.

Studying is becoming a luxury, according to Martín Lopez Armengol, president of one of Argentina's leading institutions, the National University of la Plata. Nowadays, young people have to work as well as study, which of course ends up delaying their studies. Others are unable to study at all because they couldn't afford to finish school or they had other work or family commitments.

In the face of declining purchasing power, a lack of jobs and increasing poverty, they worry constantly about how to survive at all, as well as how to pay for their university studies. We’ve come to a region just under 250 kilometers west of Córdoba city. Here in the Traslasierra valley, nearly 100 women have joined forces to set up a mini-cooperative.

They sell produce like cheese and the traditional caramelized milk dulce de leche. But life here is tough. Their 100 goats are a particular source of pride.

During the day, the animals roam free in the mountains. Since Milei came to power, life has changed. Costs are skyhigh everything has become far too expensive.

It’s more difficult to sell anything now. Everything we need for our work has become more expensive. Under the Milei government, life is much more difficult for us small producers.

Both the cost of living AND their production costs have risen. The women feel forgotten by the government. I think Milei’s government is working more for big business and not small-scale producers like us.

That means those who were poor are now homeless, and those who were middle class are now poor. The system is not designed for the poor, or for us small-scale farmers. Milei doesn't think about that.

I’m not sure if he even knows we exist. In addition to the many small farmers, Argentina also has a lot of largescale landowners with huge ranches. This farm alone has over 1000 hectares of land for cattle to graze.

Agriculture is one of Argentina’s biggest economic sectors. Almost a third of all jobs depend on it. And nearly 60% of exports are agricultural produce, especially corn, soy and beef.

Gauchos have been rearing livestock for centuries. Over the years, their everyday life has changed little. But farmers like Federico Proietti say in recent years, the state has been making their work more difficult.

The one with the tag in his ear his head has a different shape. Yes, he’s a fine Angus calf. Every day, he and his father discuss how the cattle are doing.

He has high hopes for the Milei government. The president has promised the farmers tax cuts and less bureaucracy. We’re hopeful that he’ll make good on his campaign pledges.

And that he won’t further burden the agricultural sector with the distortive taxes that have been imposed on us for years. In order to reduce the budget deficit, which has been high for years, previous governments repeatedly imposed export taxes which included the agricultural sector. The family can still earn good money from cattle farming, but they want to see Argentina become more competitive overall.

We'll see how it goes, but we believe that the government is at least prepared to reduce export taxes and later abolish them altogether. We could do with them being abolished tomorrow! The current prices on the world market don’t help.

We agree with Milei export taxes are like theft. They’re distortive. They threaten production and must go.

The farmer with his vast ranch hopes to boost profits through more lucrative exports, while in the capital, parts of the media are fighting for their very survival. And that includes state broadcaster Televisión Pública. Many here have lost their jobs or seen wage cuts.

The Milei government has cut a whole range of programs. The trade unions are seeking to fight for each worker. This is one of the worst times ever for members of the press and journalists.

Javier Milei's government is exercising a huge amount of censorship and silencing them. Critics fear Argentina's media diversity is under threat. They say independent broadcasting is dwindling on Argentine TV.

What remains are channels owned by private companies. The censorship is systematic and directed, and it aims to silence us. So that what is happening in our country will not be reported on.

And what is happening is a brutal adjustment to the income of working men and women. We love freedom and believe in these libertarian ideas that much of the world doesn’t share. People think we’re dangerous and cruel.

But I think these ideas are very important, also for the world. For us, the private sector means freedom. Freedom, free enterprise, minimal government and taxes Values that Milei shares with Elon Musk.

The multi-billionaire is looking to invest in lithium mining in Argentina. Meanwhile, protesters opposing the president keep filling the streets of Buenos Aires. Demonstrations are now taking place almost weekly.

Here, the crowds were voicing support for an 8% pension increase approved by Congress. Milei vetoed the package. Congress was due to vote in a bid to overturn the veto.

The opposition accused the president of buying votes, as he doesn’t have a majority in Congress. It wasn’t just pensioners demonstrating, but also trade unionists and opposition leaders like Juan Grabois. His supporters treat him like a hero.

The opposition managed to pass a law to increase pensions. The president vetoed it. This is very authoritarian.

He paid people to vote in favor of his law, so Congress will now ratify the veto today. Opponents also accuse Milei of breaking his promise. Milei promised in his campaign that he would make cuts to the so-called caste, the political elite.

But he’s not going after the elite, he’s making cuts for the workers, and in this case, the pensioners. Many protesters aren’t just concerned about the cuts. They also fear that progress on gender equality could be lost.

Among the seven ministries abolished was the Ministry for Women and Diversity. The state is withdrawing and leaving us in the lurch. Access to education, health, food or housing has become almost completely impossible.

There is no state presence. The situation is making people angry. So there’s more violence, more robberies, more insecurity.

Back to chocolate manufacturer Rapanui. The protests are just a few streets away, but here it’s like a different world. Business owners like Diego Fenoglio are not interested in the protests.

His business is growing. Right now, he’s busy opening new stores in Europe. Like many entrepreneurs, he’s convinced that investors regaining confidence in Argentina is the key.

And only the government under Milei, he says, has focused on that. I think that in a year or a year and a half, the economy will start to grow rapidly and the conditions will be created for Argentina to be seen as a reliable country. Reliable above all because we need investment.

We need companies to come and invest. In recent years, firms left Argentina. They didn't want to invest in us.

Later that day came the vote in Congress. Milei prevailed again. Supporters of the pension hikes did not get the two thirds majority needed to overturn his veto.

153 votes in favor, 87 against. The motion is rejected. Outside, angry protesters soon clashed with police.

One year after Milei’s election victory, the tensions in society are rising. It was the anger of many Argentines over the economic crisis and the political establishment that brought Milei to office. Now resentment against the man with the chainsaw is growing.

. . We can't trust anyone.

They’re all corrupt. As an Argentine, I’m ashamed. Milei always talks about how corrupt his predecessors were, but he’s worse than all the previous governments.

It's a disgrace. It's very sad for my country! It's a beautiful country, a good country.

We have everything, but in the end we’ll be left with nothing.