ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires City Elections & more – 22nd May 2025

¡Buenos días from Greenway Parks! This is the Rorshok Argentina Update from the 22nd of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Argentina.

On Sunday the 18th, Buenos Aires City headed to the polls for the local legislative elections. President Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, pulled off a major win, outperforming expectations and beating out both Peronism, which came in second, and the long-dominant PRO party, which suffered its worst showing in nearly twenty years.

A key figure behind the libertarian win was Manuel Adorni, the presidential spokesperson, who credited the victory to the national government’s message of radical change. Silvia Lospennato, PRO’s candidate, found herself caught between Mauricio Macri’s, the party’s leader, mixed messages of backing Milei, on one hand, and criticizing him on the other. Leandro Santoro, the Peronist candidate, ended up second but failed to meet early predictions, and former libertarian Ramiro Marra lost his seat altogether.

However, Adorni’s win didn’t come without its controversies. His party came under fire after deepfake videos falsely showed PRO members Macri and Lospennato backing Adorni ahead of the election, prompting accusations of electoral fraud. Milei brushed off the criticism and said it was a joke.

This election served as a clear preview of the national midterms coming in October.

Speaking of which, the government confirmed that Argentina’s national legislative elections will take place on the 26th of October, and announced the creation of the General Electoral Command to oversee election security. This year, voters will choose 127 new deputies and twenty-four senators, but unlike past elections, there won’t be any primaries, since Congress suspended them. Several provinces, like Misiones, Santa Fe, Formosa, and Buenos Aires, will also hold their own legislative elections on different dates.

After the Buenos Aires City election, the government announced its no-questions-asked plan to introduce new economic measures aimed at encouraging people to bring their hidden dollar savings into the formal economy. Milei dismissed concerns about how people obtained their cash and urged the government to allow spending dollars without questioning their source. Experts warn it could encourage money laundering and tax evasion, but Milei also framed taxes as theft and praised those avoiding them as heroes, while insisting that crime and economic policy should be handled separately.

The government has yet to announce when the measures will officially roll out.

On Tuesday the 20th, Milei attended the AmCham Summit in Buenos Aires, where he urged business leaders to invest in Argentina, describing the country as “very cheap” and full of growth potential after his party’s recent electoral success. He highlighted his government’s push for deregulation, saying over 2,000 reforms in less than two years have helped reduce inflation and boost the economy, while promising that inflation will disappear by mid-next year.

Luis Caputo, the Economy Minister, added that the administration aims to cut excessive regulations that hinder formal economic activity. Meanwhile, AmCham’s president called for urgent tax and labor reforms to improve competitiveness and foster investment in Argentina’s future.

On that note about reforms, we have a few to go over. First, the government plans to tighten immigration policies to reduce public spending on undocumented immigrants. The new measures include deporting any immigrant convicted of a crime, immediate expulsion of those caught entering illegally, and stricter residency and citizenship requirements requiring two years of uninterrupted residence.

The new rules will also require foreign nationals to have medical insurance to access healthcare and could impose fees on foreign students attending public universities. Adorni emphasized that Argentina will no longer tolerate criminals entering or staying in the country and aims to protect law-abiding immigrants while ensuring the nation remains open to them.

Another reform: the Justice Ministry has shut down thirteen social programs, including MenstruAR, which provided free menstrual hygiene products, as well as initiatives supporting trans individuals and victims of gender-based violence. The government framed these cuts as a way to save over six billion pesos annually (about 5 million dollars), labeling the programs “ideological.”

This move continues a pattern under President Milei’s administration of dismantling institutions and services aimed at protecting minorities and vulnerable groups. Critics argue that these actions go beyond budget concerns, leaving survivors of gender violence and marginalized communities without essential support.

Another thing that the government shut down is the Investigative Task Force set to probe the LIBRA cryptocurrency case. A quick reminder: the task force formed after Milei’s public endorsement of the LIBRA token on social media, which caused its price to spike and then crash, sparking allegations of market manipulation and misleading investors.

The government’s recent decree says it has completed its work, effectively ending the internal investigation. The controversy has raised concerns about Milei’s transparency.

In other news, heavy rains forced over 7,500 people to evacuate across Buenos Aires Province, with rivers overflowing and flooding roads, bridges, and highways. Axel Kicillof, the governor, linked the extreme weather to climate change, calling the storms an unprecedented event that even flooded areas that had never experienced it before.

Rescue teams from national and provincial authorities are working to help those affected, with more than 3,000 people staying in emergency shelters and thousands more moving away from flooded zones on their own.

Back to the topic of reforms, the Milei government has made it easier for both civilians and security personnel to get firearm permits by introducing an online application process. Through a new government platform, applicants will undergo background checks digitally, and if approved, receive official credentials to buy firearms and ammunition. This move follows earlier efforts by Milei’s administration to loosen gun regulations, including lowering the minimum ownership age to eighteen and removing municipal permit requirements for firearm businesses.

From firearms permits to drivers' licenses, drivers in eight provinces and Buenos Aires City will be able to skip in-person visits by using the new digital National Driver’s License system. Launched on Monday the 19th, this updated digital license—accessible through the Mi Argentina app—is valid nationwide. While many provinces have already adopted the system, a few, like Buenos Aires and Córdoba, still require in-person renewals for now. Existing physical licenses will automatically update in the system when they near expiration.

While the government moves toward digital convenience, a new report reveals deeper societal changes that no app can fix. According to new research from Universidad Austral, Argentina’s population is getting older, and families are getting smaller. The study found that births have dropped by 40% since twenty fourteen, one of the steepest declines in Latin America.

Households led by single mothers have also become more common, while the number of people over sixty-five and especially over eighty-five continues to grow. The researchers pointed to economic struggles as one likely factor, but they also noted that similar patterns appear in wealthier countries, so there may be deeper cultural and social shifts at work.

On a related note, a new report by an Argentine consumer advocacy group shows that two minimum wages now barely stretch to cover eight days of basic expenses for a family in Buenos Aires. Daily essentials cost over 75,000 pesos a day, (about sixty dollars) while the minimum monthly wage rose to just over 300,000 pesos in April (250 dollars). That means wages are losing ground fast: a year ago, two minimum wages could cover almost two weeks of costs, but now they barely get you through one.

Fantagraphics Books confirmed they will be reissuing the English translation of the legendary Argentine sci-fi comic El Eternauta after its recent surge in popularity thanks to the Netflix adaptation. This will give English-speaking readers another chance to explore one of Argentina’s most powerful cultural works.

And to wrap up this edition, if you want to reach the top of the Obelisk, you’ll be pleased to hear that it now has an elevator. This means visitors can ride up most of its sixty-seven-meter height instead of climbing its steep internal ladder. For now, the elevator is in a trial run, and thousands of people have already signed up for a chance to ride it.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Did you know that we do lots of other updates? We’ve got country updates and non-county updates, including the Arctic Update, the Multilateral Update, and the Ocean Update.

Check the full list with the link in the show notes!

¡Nos vemos la próxima semana!