Argentina's Milei Reform Debate

Protesters outside the Argentine Congress clashed with police using pepper spray during lower house debates on President Javier Milei's comprehensive reform bill covering the economy, politics, and private life.

Argentina's lower house of Congress began what is expected to be a marathon debate on President Javier Milei's mega-bill to reform the economy, politics and even some aspects of private life.

Milei's so-called omnibus bill initially contained 664 articles, but has lost almost half of these in tough negotiations with the opposition, which largely outnumbers his party in Congress.

Milei, a libertarian and self-described "anarcho-capitalist," took office in December vowing to slash spending and end decades of economic crisis in South America's third-largest economy, where annual inflation stands at over 200 percent.

The 53-year-old outsider won a resounding election victory on a wave of fury over the country's decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.

Milei began his term in office by devaluing the peso by more than 50 percent, cutting state subsidies for fuel and transport, reducing the number of ministries by half, and scrapping hundreds of rules so as to deregulate the economy.

His massive reform package touches on all areas of public and private life, from privatizations to cultural issues, the penal code, and divorce, to the status of football clubs.

Milei notably was forced to remove a set of tax reforms he had hoped would help his government cut spending by five percent, and a highly controversial modification of how pensions are calculated.

The International Monetary Fund slashed its forecast for Argentina's growth prospects, predicting a contraction of 2.8 percent in the economy.