Argentina’s new president plans to lay off 70,000 government workers

Mr Milai cited polls showing Argentines were more optimistic about the future of the economy. (document)

Argentine President Javier Milley plans to lay off 70,000 government workers in the coming months, one of the clearest signs yet of how liberals’ chainsaw approach intends to slash the bloated country.

In addition to layoffs, Mire boasted at an event on Tuesday that he had frozen public works, cut off some funding to provincial governments and terminated more than 200,000 social welfare programs, which he described as corrupt schemes. It’s part of his strategy to balance the economy at all costs this year.

“There are a lot of mixers,” Mire said in an hour-long speech at the IEFA Latin America Forum in Buenos Aires, referring to the erosion of wages and pensions by annual inflation of 276%. . “And a lot of chainsaws.”

While Milley represents only a fraction of Argentina’s 3.5 million public sector workers, his cuts are bound to face more resistance from the country’s powerful unions and could jeopardize his high approval ratings. A union representing some government workers went on strike on Tuesday, while a government report detailed that private sector workers had suffered the worst monthly wage loss in at least three decades since he took office in December.

The leader of the state workers’ union ATE quickly hit back at X, declaring a nationwide strike but giving no further details.

Mire cited polls showing Argentines are more optimistic about the future of the economy, while a recent indicator of public confidence in the government was rising despite austerity measures.

“People have hope, they see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Mire concluded.

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