President Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party beat expectations Sunday in Argentina’s midterm elections. Initial results show LLA won over 40 percent of the national vote, compared with 31 percent for Fuerza Patria, the current political vehicle of the opposition Peronists. LLA defeated the Peronists in the Province of Buenos Aires, the country’s largest electoral district, by a single point, despite having lost the province by 13 points just a month earlier in local elections. Milei’s ruling party now has over one-third of the seats in the lower house of Congress. In coalition with allies, they are close to a majority that can pass legislation.
To understand the significance of these elections and why having one-third of the congressional seats matters, it helps to look at how Milei has governed so far. He took office in December 2023 without a solid legislative base, as his presidential campaign was based on his own personal appeal, not a party machine. This meant that LLA party held just 37 of the 257 seats in the lower house and eight of the 72 seats in the Senate. Even in cooperation with the center-right PRO party and a few smaller allies, he remained short of a simple governing majority.
With limited support in Congress, Milei has relied heavily on presidential decrees to implement his radical economic program, including sweeping deregulation orders and steep reductions in public spending. Argentina’s Constitution allows decrees in cases of urgency, but they remain subject to congressional review and can be overturned. Milei has also used his veto power to block attempts by Congress to pass its own appropriations bills to increase spending on education, pensions and healthcare. However, Congress can override the presidential veto with a two-thirds majority. While Milei avoided Congressional checks on his authority early in his term, he has lost nearly every congressional vote since April of this year, when corruption scandals began to damage his reputation and erode his support from lawmakers.