Fights and the throwing of stones and bottles were reported on Wednesday at La Libertad Avanza’s closing campaign rally in Buenos Aires Province, which was headlined by President Javier Milei.
The event took place amid controversy over the security of the chosen venue, which had been criticised by the provincial government, led by Governor Axel Kicillof.
Milei was attending the event ahead of Buenos Aires Province’s midterm legislative elections, due to take place on Sunday. He accused the opposition of “physical intimidation.”
He also rejected the “insults and operettas that spew forth from the darkest corners of politics every day.”
At the end of the rally, groups identified by local media as political opponents engaged in scuffles involving punches, verbal aggression, stone-throwing and even the hurling of bottles.
In a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday, Milei claimed the opposition was desperate to bring down his government and would even kill him if they had to.
Ahead of the rally, provincial authorities – including Kicillof, a key opposition Peronist leader, and his provincial Security Minister Javier Alonso – had voiced concerns that the chosen location was not suitable to host the event.
“I hold Milei responsible for any disorder or violence that may occur,” Kicillof warned on X prior to the rally.
The event, however, was not well attended, dampening the chances of further violence.
A week earlier, Milei had been attacked with stones and had to be evacuated from another party rally in the southern outskirts of the capital in Lomas de Zamora, during a caravan that the AFP news agency noted was marked by an unusually light police presence.
On Wednesday, the President left without incident with his entourage from the Club Atlético Villa Ángela neighbourhood club in Moreno, on the western outskirts of the capital.
Milei is facing the toughest moment of his 21 months in office, with corruption allegations implicating his sister and presidential chief-of-staff, Karina Milei.
He is also grappling with a crisis of confidence in financial markets that sent the dollar surging, forcing the government to intervene in the market on Tuesday through the Treasury.
The president’s popularity will be put to the test in Sunday’s provincial elections and in the national polls on October 26.
Milei has branded as “smear operations” a judicial investigation into alleged overpricing in the provision of medicines and services at the ANDIS national disability agency.
“Smear campaigns are an attack on morality and good values,” he told supporters Wednesday.
Recordings attributed to the former head of ANDIS, Diego Spagnuolo, who was dismissed by the government when the scandal broke, suggest that Karina Milei received a three-percent cut from these payments, as well as one of her top advisers, Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, an official who comes from a historic Argentine family linked to corruption.
The release of these recordings and others involving the president’s sister sparked turmoil within the government, which has asked the Judiciary to investigate the matter as a case of “espionage” inside the Casa Rosada.
National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich has claimed that Russian and Venezuelan operatives are working with the opposition and fake journalists to bring down the government.
Her portfolio also called for raids on media outlets and the homes of journalists in the search for more recordings.
On Monday, a judge ordered a halt to the dissemination of the Karina Milei recordings, a measure condemned by Reporters Without Borders as “a serious threat to press freedom” and criticised by constitutional experts.
"We are going to crush them at the polls. We oppose their cowardice with courage in the force of change. I want to make it clear that the battle against Kirchnerism is a moral battle, it is a battle against criminals and thieves,” said Milei on Wednesday.
“They are resorting to extreme violence because they are scared. Because the province of Buenos Aires will wake up and shout: Kirchnerism, never again. Today, all the polls agree that we are in a technical tie, which means that either side can win," said the President.
He did not mention the audio recordings involving his sister, nor the corruption claims directly.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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