By Nitya Chakraborty
2025 is ending as a losing year for the Left in Latin America. The far-right party of the Argentinian President Javier Milei won Sunday’s midterm parliamentary polls, giving a big rebuff to the left-wing Peronists, who were in full control of the lower house as also senate, after the presidential elections in 2023 resulting in Milei’s victory. The poll results indicate that Milei’s party La Libertad Avanza got 40.84 per cent of the total votes as against 31.67 per cent received by the rival Peronists.
The outcome of the latest polls means that the far-right party’s number will go up to101 seats from 37 and in the senate, the number will go up to 20 from 6. This will give a big boost to the President Javier Milei to push through vigorously his austerity and privatization agenda, which was being blocked so far by the opposition Peronists controlling both the lower house and the senate. Only last month, the far-right party was trounced by the Peronists in Buenos Aires province elections, but on Sunday, the same province convincingly voted the far-right candidates stunning the Left opponents.
For Trump administration and the US President personally, this victory has come at an appropriate time for the US administration, as Trump is focusing on the Caribbean in a big way.Punitive measures have been taken against both Venezuela and Colombia, both of which are led by left-wing presidents. As regards Argentina, President Javier Milei is a self-declared acolyte of Trump and only this month, Trump announced a US $ 40 billion bailout programme for the country, but made it conditional that the continuation was linked to the victory of Milei’s party. Political observers say that this had some impact on the common electorate as they were afraid that the victory of Peronists in parliamentary polls would worsen the economic situation leading to increased suffering for them.
In 2025, in the earlier presidential elections, in Ecuador, the left-wing presidential candidate lost despite big expectations about the Left victory. In the recent October 19 elections in Bolivia, the centre-right candidate was elected president, removing the Left rule for two decades. On November 16 this year, Chile is going for Presidential elections. The run-off is scheduled on December14, if the first round fails to give anyone a clear majority. A senior Communist Party leader is the common candidate of the Left. Presently, Chile president, Gabriel Boric, is a renowned left-wing leader. Honduras, which now has a left-wing president, will go for presidential elections on November 30.
So that way, after Argentina, two more important presidential elections are there expected to witness a bitter fight between the ruling Left and the right opposition. Trump administration is rendering all assistance to the anti-Left forces in the election campaign as a part of the current US strategy to have friendly regimes in the backyard of America. In Brazil and Mexico, the Trump is trying to use trade policies to create problems for the two strong left-wing presidents, but so far, both Mexico and Brazil have stood firm in the face of US challenge.
Argentina is an important nation in Latin America with a large population and robust economy. In the previous Peronist regime, the economic crisis accentuated and the inflation rate rose as high as 200 per cent. The left-wing government expanded the pro-poor programmes and increased the wages. This had impact on the fiscal health of the country. The new far-right president, on the other hand, cut the pro-poor programmes and introduced austerity measures to cut spending. This has led to the lowering of inflation rate, but the wages have come down and the living standards of common people have declined. The Peronists depended on these issues in the election campaign, but did not succeed.
Recent official data show that the Javier Milei regime has led to job loss of more than 2.5 lakh and nearly 18,000 industrial units including the small and medium have been closed. More units are facing closure. Now, it will be seen how the bail-out programme helps in rejuvenating the industry and the employment market. During the election campaign, President Milei mentioned continuously that the US bailout funds would lead to the generation of thousands of jobs and tackle the unemployment problem among the youth.
For the Peronists and the Left in general in Argentina, the battle is not yet lost. The far right-party has vastly improved but still they have not full majority in Parliament. The Peronist opposition can fight against the austerity measures and other anti-people policies to be pursued by the Milei government. The trade unions and the youth organizations of the Left are still very strong in Argentina. The battle is tough, but if it is fought by uniting the anti-Right and anti-Trump forces, there is scope for good fight-back in the next presidential elections. Now, for Latin American Left, the fight is not limited against far-right; it has to be against the far-right backer Trump also. (IPA Service)
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