Milei to reveal second-half agenda in key Congress speech

President Javier Milei will formally open normal sessions of Congress this Sunday with a speech to the Legislative Assembly,  in which he is expected to set out the priorities for the second half of his term.

The La Libertad Avanza leader will map the next phase of reforms for his libertarian project at around 9pm local time.

The address will lay out the Executive’s priorities for the year – likely including pension, tax, criminal and electoral reform – under what the President has described as “the most reformist government in history.”

Milei begins the new legislative cycle after a turbulent 2025 marked by corruption allegations against officials and episodes of currency instability.

However, his victory in October’s midterm elections allowed him to expand his parliamentary presence and push forward with his programme. 

On Friday, Congress approved his labour modernisation bill despite opposition from trade unions, which have already called four general strikes since he took office in December 2023.

“Milei can only move forward,” political scientist Pablo Touzón told AFP. “His political movement is fairly punk,” he said, arguing that “a reform agenda is necessary” for him to sustain his economic model.

‘Two major rescues’

On the international stage, Milei has maintained a firm alignment with the United States and Israel and has offered unconditional backing to his ally, Donald Trump. 

On Saturday, the La Libertad Avanza celebrated the two countries’ operation against Iran and highlighted alleged Iranian involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre.

For Touzón, amid the instability of 2025, Milei’s government benefited from “two major rescues”: financial support from the Trump administration and electoral backing from voters in the midterms, a vote in which his party, La Libertad Avanza, won around 40 percent of the national vote.

That result consolidated the President’s power after he had taken office with only a minority caucus in Congress. It was compounded, according to the analyst, by a fragmented opposition that failed to build credible alternatives over the past two years.

According to polling firm AtlasIntel, Milei is currently the country’s political leader with the highest positive image rating, with 41.5 percent approval and 55.3 percent disapproval.

He has managed to bring inflation down, which “is a major achievement,” said Ariel Tarquis, a 24-year-old student, although he criticised other initiatives such as the labour reform.

Last week Milei secured approval for the Labour Modernisation Law, which reduces severance pay, allows salary payments in goods or services and limits the right to strike.

Since December, his government has also passed its first Budget bill, authorised a dollar savings amnesty scheme and lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 14, with partial backing from governors aligned with the opposition Peronist movement.

In Touzón’s view, the president “starts the year stronger than ever,” with a weakened opposition and a cohesive ruling coalition. The only significant risk factor, he argued, would be a crisis stemming from the economic model itself.

Columnist Martín Rodríguez Yebra wrote in the La Nación newspaper that Argentina’s political system “is acting as though re-election in 2027 were assured,” although questions remain over the social sustainability of Milei’s austerity drive.

‘By the wayside’

Since succeeding former president Alberto Fernández’s Peronist government in December 2023, Milei has overseen a sharp slowdown in inflation and a return to fiscal order. 

Annual inflation fell from 211.4 percent in 2023 to 31.5 percent in 2025 and Argentina has now recorded a fiscal surplus for two consecutive years for the first time since 2008.

But the adjustment has come at significant cost: falling consumption, trade liberalisation and the closure of more than 21,000 companies over two years. An estimated 300,000 jobs have been lost, according to trade union sources.

Mario Grinman, the head of the Cámara Argentina de Comercio y Services (Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services, CAC), said this week that some firms “will fall by the wayside,” but if that is the price of “a normal Argentina, with a future,” then the sacrifice “is worth it.,”

Argentina’s economy grew by 4.4 percent in 2025, driven by agriculture and financial intermediation, while manufacturing and retail – two of the country’s largest employers – contracted.

“Milei does things well, but for one sector. He doesn’t care if that burns another sector,” said Emanuel, a 29-year-old employee at an energy company who declined to give his surname.

“The problem is when it’s the majority that ends up worse off,” said the worker.