Argentina’s budget-slashing leader Javier Milei pulled off a stunning win in Sunday’s midterm elections, boosting the flagging reform agenda of the US-backed right-winger.
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Milei’s La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party rebounded from a series of setbacks to win 40.84 per cent of the votes cast for members of Congress, official results based on 90 per cent of votes counted showed.
The centre-left Peronist movement, which had been riding high after winning last month’s Buenos Aires provincial elections, trailed with 31.64 per cent, the partial results showed.
The result strengthens Milei’s hand as he moves ahead with his campaign to downsize the state and deregulate the economy.
“God bless Argentina,” Milei’s spokesman Manuel Adorni wrote on X.
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The elections were the first national test of Milei’s support since he won office two years ago on a promise to revive the long-ailing Argentine economy through a series of painful reforms.
Half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and one-third of the Senate seats were up for grabs on Sunday.