BUENOS AIRES (Realist English). President Javier Milei kicked off his party’s campaign in Buenos Aires Province on Thursday with a blistering speech that cast Argentina’s largest region as a failed Peronist bastion mired in poverty and decline.
Speaking at a La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party congress in La Plata, Milei urged voters to back his movement in upcoming local legislative elections in September and national midterms in October, describing the contests as a stark choice between “civilisation or barbarism.”
“Today we have the task of bringing the model of freedom to the Province of Buenos Aires, where the same people have governed for nearly four decades,” he declared, accusing provincial governor Axel Kicillof of turning the region into “a land of poverty, violence and illiteracy.”
Buenos Aires Province — home to 17.5 million of Argentina’s 47 million residents — has long been a Peronist stronghold, with the movement controlling the region for 33 of the past 40 years.
Milei, flanked by Cabinet ministers, called LLA “the only true vehicle for change” and portrayed the election as a battle between “the party of the state” and “the party of the people who work and move forward by their own efforts.”
The Peronist movement, which recently suffered a blow when the courts upheld a corruption conviction and lifetime ban on former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is on the defensive. Fernández de Kirchner had just announced plans to run for the provincial legislature before the ruling.
Milei is seeking to expand LLA’s power base in Buenos Aires and beyond. Currently, his bloc holds 39 of 257 seats in the lower house and six of 72 Senate seats, with both chambers up for renewal in October.
Recent polls show Milei’s approval rating ranging from 45 to 51 percent. Though he has not confirmed plans to run again in 2027, Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos said this week he believes Milei will seek a second term.
