Sturzenegger’s balance sheet of Milei’s first six months: fiscal surplus, adjustment and “a truly federal country”

With one day to go before the first six months of Javier Milei as president of Argentina, presidential advisor Federico Sturzenegger took stock of the different essential aspects of the administration, including the fiscal surplus of recent months, the budget adjustment at the national level and the modification in Public Works. It is still difficult to see the positive results of his economic policy. The impact on the prices of food and other basic necessities is the first of the unobjectionable factors that accompanied these six months, in which there was also a fiscal surplus due to the budget cut, which included the dismissal of thousands of state workers. Through his official Twitter account, the presidential adviser began by expressing that “there is much more than meets the eye.” In this line, he praised in the first place the achievement of the fiscal surplus. “If a year ago we had said that the government would start with a 30% reduction in spending, it would have been hilarious because it was implausible. But here we are. It is an extraordinary achievement that is the guarantee of macro order,” he wrote. Tomorrow marks the first 6 months of @JMilei’s government, and it is worth stopping for a minute to take perspective of the first steps of his government. What can we say? I think there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. I open a short thread.— Fede Sturzenegger (@fedesturze) June 9, 2024 “But equally extraordinary is the cultural shift that makes it possible. Public spending was an alibi to sustain a series of political expenditures. ‘I’m going to use your money to help you,’ they told you. But the reality was that they used your money to help themselves,” he added in that line. He then maintained that the aforementioned point “is the biggest scam of the progressive discourse,” and said: “That is why the adjustment is popular. Because it was understood that it is to return the money to the people.  The ‘there is no money’ is: there is no money for politics to continue exploiting you, while the AUH + food card reach historic highs.” Sturzenegger also defended the modifications in the management of public works. “The transfer of public works to the provinces improves control, will make corruption more costly – because it will bring it closer to the users themselves – and will make international organizations demand better fiscal performance from the provinces (today they are accomplices of the system of domination),” he said, and then pointed out that “the president is the first, in many years, that believes in and wants Argentina to be a truly federal country.” On the other hand, he referred to the definitive closure of the Ministry of Women, inaugurated by former President Alberto Fernández at his inauguration, and maintained: “The president has resolved to discuss all issues: without taboos. That is why the Ministry of Women or the Institute of Family Farming are encouraged to close. Without fear. Society celebrates because it saw the waste of expenses, without participating in the party other than paying for it.” Regarding the relationship with Parliament, the presidential advisor assured that “we have a Congress with children’s proposals, and an adult president,” and indicated that “Congress can legislate more spending, but without financing it is a somewhat childish request,” so “when the President says that he will veto any legislative proposal that does not contemplate its financing, the only thing he has is an adult attitude.” To conclude his analysis, Sturzenegger said: “It has been an amazing six months. But not because of DNU-70, or the discussion of the basic law, but because of the Copernican turn that the government has managed to give to the public debate. A lot, considering that it is a government that has only been in office for 6 months.”

Original source in Spanish