From Córdoba, about six hundred kilometers from Buenos Aires, President Javier Milei addressed a cheering audience of economists and business leaders, insisting that if his plans end well it will be not only a political triumph but a revolution. He framed his message around new borrowing aimed at curbing the dollar, a stance that markets greeted with optimism. It felt as if Argentina were in a different moment, even as the libertarian leader spoke of a thirteen percent annual inflation target and a medium‑term dollarization plan. The nationwide strike that shut down rail lines, the metro, taxis and portions of urban buses, along with trucking, port and airport activity, sent a powerful signal of disruption that the government could not easily disguise. The administration labeled the protest as political, even as a broad array of wage and labor demands emerged, along with resistance to adjustment, fare hikes north of one hundred percent so far this year, and privatization of state companies. Workers from the tax agency, whose dissolution had been announced the week before, together with hospital staff and university professors, joined the protests.
In addition, mobilizations expanded to about five hundred points across the country, with corresponding community kitchens appearing as part of the national effort known as the struggle against hunger. Dina Sánchez, a leader among workers in the so‑called popular economy, argued that occupying public space was necessary to make the need visible. She said people were taking to the streets because meals still did not reach community dining rooms, the situation in neighborhoods was deeply troubled, and every day women arrived at feeding centers asking for something to eat, while more and more elderly people found themselves living on the streets. Poverty had risen by around eleven percentage points since Milei took office, edging toward fifty‑three percent of the population.
For the newspaper La Nación, the day represented a real challenge to presidential authority. Rail terminals and metro stations were eerily empty. Millions of residents traveled from the periphery into Buenos Aires by roads that were heavily congested. Piles of garbage lined the streets as sanitation workers joined the strike.
The government remained convinced that the movement would not erode its initiative. It leaned on polling trends showing Milei near the fifty percent mark and on the sense that a more moderate faction within the General Confederation of Labour, CGT, did not want to cross into a full confrontation.
Presidential Reaction
Milei dismissed the protest as a political maneuver. When unionists or politicians appear in the streets, he argued, it is because some fund is at stake. He used his Instagram account to circulate a controversial image showing a very overweight figure portraying a union leader being carried by a cyclist who collapses under the effort. The Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta, accused the unions of harming workers. He said they talk about defending labor while keeping people on foot and removing their ability to go to work and earn a daily wage. He labeled the protest organizers as horsemen of delay.
Pablo Moyano, one of the main leaders of the Confederation General del Trabajo CGT and head of the truckers, urged Milei to take note of the public discontent and warned that the plan of protest would continue if sectorial demands were not addressed. He added that if the government did not care about the strike, it would not have spent so much time campaigning against it. Claudio Dellecarbonara, from the metro workers’ union, argued that if the government cared about the disruption, it would not have pursued such aggressive campaigning against the stoppage. Omar Maturano, secretary general of the railway drivers’ union, predicted greater conflict ahead. He said this government, like others before, dislikes organized labor and wants to privatize; he argued that the state should fulfill its national obligations rather than act as a revenue collector. The Union of Transit and Automotive Workers announced a strike for Thursday.
The government remained convinced that the labor movement would not surrender momentum. It relied on polls showing Milei with roughly half of public support and noted that a more moderate CGT did not want to trigger a larger clash.