Argentina's Milei takes his chainsaw to the state, cutting 15,000 jobs and spurring protests
President Javier Milei’s aggressive campaign to slash spending, the latest in a series of painful economic measures that have put the libertarian government on a collision course with angry protesters and powerful trade unions. Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni announced the job cuts in a news conference, portraying them as key to Milei’s promised shake-up of Argentina’s bloated public sector.
“It’s part of the work we are doing to reduce state expenses," he told reporters, describing the dismissed workers as a drag on taxpayers. “They perhaps did not have a very defined job," he said.
Hundreds of defiant employees — some notified of their termination last week and others before that — stormed their workplaces in Buenos Aires and nearby cities on Wednesday, beating drums, decrying their dismissal as unjust and demanding their reinstatement. Despite the rain, crowds wearing the green T-shirts of the country’s biggest union, The Association of State Workers, or ATE, swelled outside national ministries.
In some cases, scuffles erupted as police struggled to evict protesters from government buildings. Workers at ministries that Mileli has vowed to close, such as the National Institute Against Discrimination, along with a range of state agencies — including the ministries for the economy, energy and social security — received the latest layoff notices.
“These layoffs have a face, they have a family, they have real needs in this context of great change and great poverty in Argentina," Mercedes Cabezas, a secretary-general of ATE, told The Associated Press outside the Ministry of Labor as protesters pumped their fists and chanted around her. “The impact runs very deep because it's combined with the reduction of social
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