Monday 08 / September / 2025
Buenos Aires: Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei suffered a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections at the hands of the opposition Peronist party on Sunday.
According to the official data, the Peronist's center-left candidate Axel Kicillof won 46.8% of the vote across the province, while the candidate for Milei's La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party took 33.8%, with 82.2% of the votes counted.
The margin between the Peronist party and Milei's party was much higher than what was predicted in pre-election polls.
Milei accepted his party's "clear defeat" and admitted to unspecified "mistakes" which he vowed to "correct."
Following the loss, Milei vowed to "accelerate" his libertarian reforms ahead of highly anticipated national midterm elections.
"The course will not change, it will be redoubled," said the president, speaking from the provincial headquarters of his LLA coalition, focusing on fiscal balance, economic openness, and inflation control.
The election results in Buenos Aires are a wake up call for Milei, who has been facing criticism over a bribery scandal and growing unease over slashing of public spending.
The provincial elections also came on the heels of a bribery scandal at the National Disability Agency involving the president's sister and right-hand woman, Karina Milei.
