President Javier Mili’s party La Libertad Avanza has won more than 40% of the votes cast for the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Argentina’s Congress.
This is according to local media data using data from electoral authorities, based on 97% of votes counted. At 67.9%, turnout was the lowest in a national election in more than 40 years.
La Libertad Avanza also took six of the eight provinces voting for the Senate on Sunday.
Half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate were up for grabs in Sunday’s snap elections. Executive positions such as President and Vice President were not on the ballot.
Miley celebrates ‘turning point’ for Argentina
At his party headquarters in the capital Buenos Aires, Miley stormed the stage and sang a few lines of the death-metal tune that has become their anthem in a raspy baritone: “I’m the king of a lost world!”
He described the results as a “turning point” for the country and vowed to pursue his reform agenda.
“Today we have reached a turning point, today the building of a great Argentina begins,” he told supporters at a victory ceremony.
“The Argentine people left decadence behind and chose progress,” Miley said, “Thank you to all those who supported the ideas of freedom to make Argentina great again.”
Miley said that after Sunday’s vote his party had increased from just 37 seats to more than 101 seats in the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies.
In the 72-seat Senate, he said La Libertad Avanza gained 14 more seats to end up with 20 senators.
“God bless Argentina,” Miley’s spokesperson Manuel Adorni wrote in response to X.
The centre-left Peronist opposition, which was on a high after winning provincial elections in Buenos Aires in September, trailed with just over 31%, almost complete results showed.
Miley still needs support from other parties
The result strengthens Miley’s hand as he moves forward with his campaign to downsize the state and deregulate the economy.
Since taking office in December 2023, his administration has cut thousands of public sector jobs, frozen public works, cut spending on health, education and pensions and led a massive deregulation campaign.
However, Miley will still need to build a coalition in Congress with the center-right to pass the legislation.
The election was the first national test of Miley’s support since she won office two years ago on a promise to revive Argentina’s long-lagging economy through a series of painful reforms.
The national currency, the peso, saw a decline ahead of the election, forcing Miley to seek a bailout from her close ally, US President Donald Trump.
The US had promised an unprecedented $40 billion aid package, but the aid came with a warning from Trump to Argentina that he would “not be generous” if Sunday’s election did not go Miley’s way.
Edited by: John Silk