Milei reform package clears key vote in Argentine Senate amid clashes

Argentina's Senate has approved a sweeping economic reform plan proposed by President Javier Milei in an overall vote, with lawmakers now set to vote on each article of the bills.

Wednesday's motion initially tied 36-36, with the head of the chamber, Vice President Victoria Villarruel, breaking the tie.

Ahead of the vote, hundreds of security force members fired tear gas and water cannons at rioting demonstrators protesting in Buenos Aires against the proposed economic reforms.

Two cars were set ablaze as the demonstration outside Congress turned violent while Argentine lawmakers debated a swath of reforms proposed by Milei.

Scuffles first broke out when protesters tried to bypass a system of fences set up between them and Congress, with demonstrators lobbing stones at officers who used pepper spray against them.

Seven people, including five lawmakers among the protesters, were treated at hospital after being pepper sprayed, according to the Health Ministry.

Dozens of others received medical attention at the scene.

Later, as night fell, thick blocks of shield-bearing officers and others on motorbikes pushed back the protesters, who overturned two cars — one of which belonged to a local media organisation — and set them on fire.

At least ten people were arrested, and nine police officers were injured, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Security told the AFP news agency.

The office of the president on X denounced "the terrorist groups that, with sticks, stones and even grenades, tried to perpetrate a coup d'état."

Inside Congress, meanwhile, senators debated what remains of Milei's flagship reform bill — rejected in its original form and approved with major changes by the lower house Chamber of Deputies in April.

'Back 100 years'

The whittled-down bill has 238 articles — slimmed from an initial 600-plus. The measures include declaring a one-year state of economic emergency, allowing Milei to disband federal agencies, and privatising about a dozen public companies, including state-owned carrier Aerolineas Argentina.

Others deal with reducing access to minimum retirement allowances and weakening labour protections by allowing for longer probation periods — slammed by the left-wing opposition as a license to fire workers.

The provisions also envision tax, customs and foreign exchange incentives to encourage investment in the country wracked by economic crisis.

On the Senate floor, opposition lawmakers claimed the bill would set progress back by decades.

The labour reforms, in particular, "take us back to the last century when the employee had no labour rights," said opposition senator Mariano Recalde.

The bill is opposed by social organisations, leftist political parties, retirees, teachers and labour unions.

"We cannot believe that in Argentina we are discussing a law that will put us back 100 years," said Fabio Nunez, a 55-year-old lawyer among the protesters.

"They seek to bankrupt our national industry for the benefit of some monopolies," said Peronist lawmaker Juan Marino.

After Senate approval, the law returns to the lower house for a final green light.

Milei rose to power on the promise he would solve Argentina's worst economic crisis in two decades, but his political party of relative novices holds a tiny minority of seats in both houses of Congress, and he has struggled to strike deals with the opposition.

By decree, he has cut the cabinet in half, slashed 50,000 public jobs, suspended new public works contracts and ripped away fuel and transport subsidies even as wage-earners lost a fifth of their purchasing power and annual inflation approached 300 percent.