President Javier Milei used a national televised broadcast on Friday night to hail a favourable court ruling for Argentina in a case related to the 2012 nationalisation of state energy firm YPF and to paint leaders of the opposition Peronist movement as irresponsible and reckless.
In a surprise ‘Cadena Nacional’ speech broadcast across national television, Milei fiercely criticised former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof – the key political figures behind the decision to expropriate YPF 14 years ago – while praising his government for securing a major legal victory.
What began as a message to celebrate the decision by a US appeals court ultimately became a political address filled with reproaches aimed at Peronism and Kirchnerism, which Milei blamed for triggering what he described as the most costly legal battle Argentina has ever faced abroad.
The case stems from Argentina’s 2012 decision to nationalise YPF, then controlled by Spain’s Repsol. Minority shareholders later filed lawsuits in the United States arguing that Argentina failed to launch a proper tender offer for remaining shares as required under YPF’s corporate statutes. In 2023, a New York court ordered Argentina to pay roughly US$16 billion in damages, one of the largest judgments ever issued against the country. The recent appeals court ruling eased Argentina’s position in the case, which Milei presented as a major relief for the country’s finances.
Milei adopted a confrontational tone from the outset. He described the ruling as an “event of historic and unprecedented importance” and said Argentina had managed to avoid a potential US$18-billion payout. That figure, he claimed, was equivalent to 70 million minimum pension payments.
The La Libertad Avanza leader sought to exploit the case politically, repeatedly reinforcing the idea that responsibility for Argentina’s long-term economic problems should be placed on previous Peronist administrations.
Milei said the favourable ruling was possible thanks to the “legal, political and diplomatic expertise” of his government’s team, though he stressed that Argentina had been taken to the brink of catastrophe by past decisions. He described the expropriation of the oil company as a “suicidal adventure” and accused Kirchnerism of nearly costing the country YPF while leaving behind a “bankrupt state.”
“Expropriation is wrong because stealing is wrong,” the President declared, one of the most striking lines of the speech.
Throughout the address, Milei insisted that while populism may generate applause in the short term, it leaves deep damage in the medium and long term. He spoke of “populist arrogance,” “cheap, second-rate nationalism” and “false sovereignists” — a string of expressions aimed at undermining the Kirchnerite narrative that the nationalisation of YPF was an act of economic sovereignty.
The expropriation not only led to a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit, it also scared away investment for more than a decade, Milei argued. He said the cost should not be measured only in the court case, but also in lower economic growth, less employment and higher poverty rates.
“They gambled with our future; we did not gamble, we simply won,” Milei said.
The La Libertad Avanza leader also announced that his government had already sent Congress a bill to modify legislation governing expropriations, in order to strengthen protections for private property and prevent a similar legal dispute in the future.
– TIMES/NA
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