Javier Milei, Tory tax cuts and the dangers of middle-ground politics
Anti-government protesters rally against the economic reforms of President Javier Milei outside the Supreme Court, as labor unions legally challenge the measures in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 27, 2023. The signs read in Spanish "They will not pass!" and "National strike."
MORE than 40 per cent of Argentinians are in poverty; inflation runs at over 160 per cent.
And recently elected President Javier Milei’s answers? To abolish laws limiting price rises for essentials including food; to remove price caps from healthcare; to revoke rules guaranteeing pension increases.
This is provoking resistance, of course, so like neoliberals before him Milei combines aversion to state regulation of the economy with enthusiasm for state restrictions on individual and collective freedoms. The right to strike is to be severely curtailed; protest rights are under attack, with the president threatening to charge unions for the cost of policing the protests they staged this week.
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