After winning the elections as an ‘outsider’ who, with aggressive speech and disruptive ways, promised to end “the caste”, Javier Milei completes one hundred days of his mandate this Tuesday, in which he has maintained a confrontational and fulfilled its announced economic adjustment. The “first liberal libertarian president” in the world, as he likes to define himself, came to power on December 10, prevailing in November in the second round of elections against the then Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, with 56% support.

Today, despite the severe economic adjustment that affects the middle and lower classes (elimination of subsidies; devaluation of the official currency; loss of purchasing power of salaries; very high inflation), the ‘honeymoon’ continues… at least in part. According to the latest report by the consulting firm D’Alessio IROL Berensztein, Milei’s Government has an approval rating of 43%, but disapproval increases to 52%; Meanwhile, the Giacobbe & Asociados study reflects that the president has a positive image of 53.6% and a negative image of 42.1%.

His ‘rock star’ looks, Digressive style and social media managementand they made them rise in Argentine politics and reach their zenith with the Presidency. For analyst Jorge Arias, from the consulting firm Polilat, what happened in Argentina was another symptom of the “dissatisfaction with democracy around the world.” “That weariness, that weariness of dissatisfaction, people sought to express it with an ‘outsider’ who would come to put the political caste on the side of the chainsaw blade,” he tells EFE in reference to the object with which Milei stages his adjustment. But people “imagined themselves on the side of the handle of the chainsaw” and, with Milei’s adjustment, they found “that it was on the side of the teeth of the chainsaw,” he adds.

“People were scared because they didn’t think it was going to go so far either economically or in repressive policies.”

However, and despite the call for sectoral strikes, and even a general strike on January 24 – the first in Argentina since May 2019 -, the social outbreak that was expected as a reminder of 2001 did not come. Arias identifies the libertarian adjustment with the model of the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and, even, He points out that “the same thing is happening with Milei” What happened when he came to power? Jorge Videla: “At some point, people got scared because they didn’t think it was going to go so far either economically or in repressive policies.” For the analyst, society is currently under the ‘boiled frog syndrome’ (adapting to situations that are harmful and that in some way disfavor well-being).

Milei’s star projects, the Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines law and the decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) have foundered in their parliamentary process, exposing the institutional fragility of La Libertad Avanza: with 38 deputies, 7 senators and no governor (provincial), Milei’s far-right party must negotiate agreements. In addition, the Executive is faced with the provincial governors, whom Milei summoned on March 1 for a “refoundation pact” of Argentina that must be signed on May 25, under some conditions.

The recent ‘no’ to the DNU once again tightened the rope. Several controversies in Casa Rosada led to slight changes in the cabinet. However, the latest ‘victim’ of libertarian anger is the vice president, Victoria Villarruel, whom some accuse of having her own agenda and harming the interests of the party.

With the arrival of Milei, foreign policy has changed: after not allowing Argentina to enter the BRICS group of emerging economies, it has chosen the United States and Israel as a lighthouse. Alejandro Rascovan, professor of International Security at the School of Politics and Government at the National University of San Martín, values ​​the new diplomacy as “negative, extremely erratic and conflictive.” “There is a mismanagement of foreign policy that is enormous and that is going to have very large costs in the future. In the immediate future, in commercial matters and in political ties; and in the longer term, in strategic issues,” he details to EFE. .

An “ideologized” look at Israel in the middle of the war in Gaza; Donald Trump’s “risky bet” on an electoral victory; and the “contempt” towards Brazil and other neighbors mark, for the expert, this new stage in which the president has not traveled through the region. The Davos Forum, a tour of Israel, Italy and the Vatican, and his participation in the American Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) have been his trips since December 10.