Milei to appeal Argentinian court ruling that suspended free market economic reforms

An Argentinian court has suspended recent labor reforms implemented by newly sworn in President Javier Milei.

Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, who centered his campaign around economic reforms, shocked the Western world on Nov. 19 after defeating his Peronist rival, Sergio Massa, for the presidency.

He took office last month and immediately began trying to implement economic reforms by decree in hopes of energizing the South American country’s economy. But Milei has faced stiff challenges from trade unions who are arguing some of the reforms loosen protection for workers.

The reforms would have lengthened Argentina’s three-month worker probation to eight months, giving employers more latitude over their own hiring practices. They would also shorten pregnancy leave and lowered unemployment compensation payments for employees who were laid off.

The new president is expected to appeal the ruling in hopes of staying the ruling, which was originally sought by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Argentina's largest trade union federation.

The CGT, which has voiced opposition to Milei and supported the left-wing policies of his Peronist opposition, is heralding a nationwide strike on Jan. 24.

Milei took office in November after winning 55.65% of the vote in a second run-off against his far-left rival, Massa. His campaign centered around combatting “Argentina's economic decay” by reducing public spending.

After Milei broke tradition by greeting the national population outside the National Congress Building during his swearing in ceremony, he told his countrymen their nation was in desperate need of “shock treatment” to save itself from an economic crisis.

“We don’t have alternatives and we don’t have time,” Milei told a crowd of thousands in the capital, Buenos Aires, ADN reported at the time. “We don’t have margin for sterile discussions. Our country demands action, and immediate action. The political class left the country at the brink of its biggest crisis in history. We don’t desire the hard decisions that will need to be made in coming weeks, but lamentably they didn’t leave us any option.

“In the last 12 years, GDP per capita fell 15% in a context in which we accumulated 5,000% inflation. As such, for more than a decade we have lived in stagflation. This is the last rough patch before starting the reconstruction of Argentina,” Milei said. “It won’t be easy; 100 years of failure aren’t undone in a day. But it begins in a day, and today is that day.”

The newly elected president is facing the challenge of lowering a skyrocketed inflation rate of 143% and poverty rate of 40%.

Argentina presently owes $45 billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with $10.6 billion due to private and multilateral creditors by April and has suffered a trade deficit of $43 billion.

In a Dec. 31, speech, Milei there would be "a social catastrophe of biblical proportions" if the left obstructed his proposals, but he has faced resistance from left-wing organizations and trade unions.

Thousands marched in the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, last week in opposition to the changes.

Milei is a former macroeconomics professor who has written more than 50 economic papers and several books about the economy. He has taught at Argentine universities and at schools abroad about the issue. 

He has assured his countrymen he will not privatize education or health care and has said he is not immediately scale back gun control restrictions. 

The libertarian thinker also served as the chief economist for Maxima AFJP, a private equity company, served as the head economist at Estudio Broda, a financial advising company and was a financial consultant for the government at the International Center for Settlement for Investment Disputes. 

Milei also served as a financial adviser for HSBC Argentine, part of one of the largest bank chains in the world, and since 2012, led a division at the Economic Studies at the Acordar Foundation, a national think tank.

In July 2021, Milei established the Freedom Moves Forward political coalition, which won a third of the votes in the 2021 Argentine legislative elections by securing 17% of the national vote.