From ditching the struggling peso to eventually eliminating Argentina’s central bank, outsider presidential candidate Javier Milei has vowed to implement a series of bold — and perhaps unfeasible — measures to pull South America’s second-largest economy from the brink of a meltdown.
While some of his proposals have scared off investors, triggering an 18% currency devaluation, his fiery rhetoric has resonated with many Argentines who gave him an unexpected win in Sunday’s primary vote. They say Argentina’s situation is so messy that it will take a leader as energetic as Milei to change it.
Read More: Outsider Milei Upends Argentina’s Election With Primary Win
Here’s a list of Milei’s main proposals, according to a document his party submitted to electoral authorities in May:
Economic Reforms
- Cutting government spending
- Privatizing deficit-making public companies
- Fomenting private investment
- Eliminating the central bank down the road
- Allowing Argentines to freely choose their monetary system, or dollarizing the economy
National Security Reform
- Building prisons through a system of public-private partnerships
- Consider reducing the minimum age for incarceration of minors
- Deregulating the gunfire market to allow the legitimate and responsible use of guns by Argentines
- Zero tolerance to crime
Health Reform
- Protecting babies since conception, and adults until their natural death
- Creating a universal health insurance to cover health costs
Tax Reforms
- Eliminating and cutting taxes
- Exploration of natural resources through a system of royalties and concessions
Labor Reforms
- Eliminating fines imposed on companies that dismiss workers without just cause
- Reducing labor taxes
- Reducing the number of public workers by offering early retirements and revising contracts for hiring workers and services
Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing
- Eliminating export taxes that cause economic distortions
- Building infrastructure to support the sector, with private capital
- Eliminating tariffs on imports of strategic inputs and capital goods, including fertilizers, industrial inputs and machinery
Read More: Milei Has the Votes — Does He Have a Plan?
(Updates with additional proposals.)
