General strike in Argentina: protest against Milei’s reform plans Large parts of German rail traffic paralyzed

In Argentina, a general strike against reforms by the new ultra-liberal government of President Javier Milei has paralyzed large parts of public life. According to media reports, thousands of people protested across the country on Wednesday. There was a demonstration in front of the National Congress in the capital Buenos Aires. “We will not take a step back,” said Héctor Daer, leader of the CGT union. “The homeland is not for sale.”

Other unions also joined the protest. Many areas such as transport, public administration and healthcare were affected. Flights were cancelled. Banks were closed from midday and public transport would be suspended until midnight. The last strike of the left-wing Peronist trade union federation was in May 2019.

The protest was aimed, among other things, against an emergency decree signed by Milei with thirty measures, which provides for the repeal of various laws regulating the labor and real estate markets. However, the Argentine courts have already reversed part of the arrangement.

The general strike also opposed a major reform package that the government submitted to Congress in late December, which included the declaration of a “public emergency.” This would give the government extensive powers to decide issues that can currently only be settled by parliament. Already in December, countless people took to the streets in various cities.

The controversial reform package will be discussed in Congress on Thursday. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich described the union members as “mafia-like.” They would resist the change that society had democratically decided upon. “No attack can stop us, no threat can intimidate us,” she said. Because Milei’s party does not have a majority in parliament and to accommodate the opposition, the government has massively revised the original bill in recent days. More than 140 articles of the law have been removed from the original version.

Argentina is in a serious economic crisis. The inflation rate is well over 200 percent and about 40 percent of people in the once wealthy country live below the poverty line. South America’s second-largest economy suffers from a bloated state apparatus, low industrial productivity and a large shadow economy that deprives the state of much tax revenue. The national currency, the peso, continues to lose value against the US dollar and the mountain of debt continues to grow. (sda/dpa)