Javier Milei, Argentina’s President announced plans to release 70,000 government employees in the upcoming months, highlighting his chainsaw-style approach to reduce the size of the state.
At an event, Milei exaggerated that he’s frozen public works, cut off some funding to regional governments and terminated more than 200,000 social welfare plans, which he labelled as corrupt.
According to the media reports, ‘It is all part of his planning to reach a fiscal balance at any cost this year’.
Milei said in a speech, ‘There’s a lot of blender’ at the IEFA Latam Forum in Buenos Aires, referring to the wearing down of wages and pensions by 276 % annual inflation.
He further added, ‘There’s a lot more chainsaw’. Milei’s job cuts may put his high support ratings, even if they only affect a small portion of Argentina’s 3.5 million public sector workers. The country’s strong labor unions will undoubtedly oppose them.
A government probe revealed that after he took office in December, workers in the private sector had the biggest one-month wage reduction in at least three decades. Meanwhile, one union that represents certain government employees went on strike on Tuesday.
The leader of the state workers union ATE tweeted on X, announcing a national strike without providing further details.
Milei cited polls showing Argentines are more optimistic about the economy’s future, while a recent indicator of the public confidence in the government rose despite his austerity measures.
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