Argentina’s President Javier Milei and his party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), swept to a crushing victory over the Peronist opposition Sunday. 

LLA massively outperformed polls to take home 41 percent of the vote against just 32 percent for the Peronist coalition Frente de Todos and allies. The libertarians won 64 new seats of the 130 contested in the House of Deputies, as well as 13 of the 24 open Senate seats.

The victory comes as a vindication of Milei’s program of economic liberalization—a program whose viability had been thrown into doubt under the shadow of a series of administration scandals involving cryptocurrencies and corruption in the months leading up to the election. These scandals dented the president’s image among the public, forced out LLA’s top candidate in the vital province of Buenos Aires, and galvanized the opposition in the legislature to pass legislation attacking the president’s austerity measures. 

Prospects dimmed further when LLA suffered a convincing defeat in the important Buenos Aires provincial elections, a contest Milei had framed as a referendum on his politics. The increasing possibility of a Peronist victory in midterm elections spooked investors, who began pulling capital out of Argentine markets and pressuring the peso. The situation threatened to critically undermine the economy of Argentina until the U.S. stabilized conditions by announcing a $20 billion currency swap.

Milei has been one of the staunchest foreign supporters of President Donald Trump and has consistently advocated for closer political and commercial relations with the U.S. Trump in turn endorsed Milei earlier this month, and even implied that American support for Argentina depended on his victory: “If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump told reporters.

Libertarians jammed the streets around the party’s headquarters Sunday night as Milei took the stage to announce the victory. “We have passed the turning point,” he said. “Today begins the building of a great Argentina!”

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