Javier Milei’s Party Triumphs in Argentina Midterm Election

The party of Argentina’s budget-slashing president, Javier Milei, won a resounding victory in legislative elections on Sunday, a crucial test for his administration that President Trump had said would decide whether the United States extended a financial lifeline to the country.

It was an emphatic win for Mr. Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has significantly curbed Argentina’s crippling inflation, but whose tenure was recently hit by financial and political turmoil. His party received over 40 percent of the vote, showing that despite pain inflicted by his austerity measures, many Argentines are still willing to back his libertarian experiment.

“Today we passed a turning point,” Mr. Milei told supporters on Sunday night, after coming onstage and singing a campaign song.

“Today begins the building of a great Argentina,” he said.

The victory gives Mr. Milei enough support in Congress to prevent his vetoes from being overridden, putting him in a strong position to further his ambitious agenda.

It was also a victory for President Trump, who had endorsed Mr. Milei and said that a bailout from the United States, in the form of a $20 billion currency swap, was contingent on his success in the midterm elections. Mr. Milei is an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Trump and the MAGA movement, and his fortunes are seen by the Trump administration as a way to bolster American influence in South America and counter China’s push into the region.

“It was quite a resounding victory for common sense and pro-U.S. leadership, which Milei very much embodies,” said Andrés Martínez-Fernández, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation focusing on Latin America. It also showed that “there are also very clear benefits to countries that try to ally with the U.S. very proactively,” he said.