Milei’s approval rises after victory in midterm election vote

President Javier Milei’s popularity picked up after his party’s landslide victory in midterm elections as both voter perceptions of his administration and economic expectations improved.

Milei’s approval rose to 42.6 percent in November from an administration low point of 39.9 percent in October, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News and published Tuesday. It was the first increase since July. His disapproval fell nearly four percentage points from October, to 52 percent.

At the same time, the number of respondents who said Milei’s administration was “excellent” or “regular” surpassed 50 percent, while those who described it as “bad” or “very bad” fell over five percentage points, to 46.5 percent.

Milei’s popularity boost comes after his party won 41 percent of congressional votes that were up for grabs in Argentina’s October 26 midterm contest, well above the 32 percent obtained by the Peronist opposition. That victory marked a shocking turnaround from a local Buenos Aires Province election in early September, when the president suffered a 14 percentage point loss to his arch rivals.

The poll also follows US President Donald Trump’s move to offer an unprecedented aid package to Argentina, including a US$20 billion currency swap line. The Trump administration had also promised to put together more aid from his country’s top banks. Milei has tapped a small portion of the swap to stabilise the currency.

While economic expectations remain pessimistic, the outlook has improved since October. Sixty-four percent now see the economy as “bad,” down from 68 percent.

Forty-four percent of respondents expect the economy to worsen over the next six months, compared with 53 percent before. Forty-one percent now expect an improvement, a seven-point increase.

Argentina’s economic activity rose five percent in September from the year prior, far exceeding all estimates from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The latest print suggests an expansion in gross domestic product of 0.5 percent in the third quarter, dispelling fears of a recession, according to Bloomberg Economics.

On December 10, Milei’s allies will more than double their representation in Congress as dozens of new senators and deputies will assume their roles.

Lawmakers face the challenge of approving ambitious bills to overhaul Argentina’s onerous labour and tax codes, as well as passing a budget for the first time since Milei took office. Investors will be monitoring the legislation as signs of whether the president’s free-market reforms have staying power.

AtlasIntel surveyed 3,111 people in Argentina from November 22 to 27, with a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.