The approval rating of Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, fell to 35.5 percent in April, while disapproval rose to 63 percent, marking a sharp drop from the start of the year, according to a recent AtlasIntel survey for Bloomberg News. The decline comes as Milei’s government pushes forward aggressive economic reforms and faces stubborn monthly inflation of more than 3 percent, as well as corruption scandals. What explains Milei’s declining public approval? How might weakening support affect the government’s ability to advance its economic and legislative agenda in the coming months? How is Argentina’s opposition responding to Milei’s policies, and to what extent has it been able to capitalize on growing public dissatisfaction?
Phillip Leon Euell, founding partner at Mimesis Advisory: “The fall in Javier Milei’s approval to 35.5 percent looks alarming only if one forgets where Argentina was two years ago. A country that printed its way to 211 percent annual inflation, ran chronic deficits and watched poverty climb above half the population has, under this government, balanced its books, halved its inflation rate and lowered the poverty rate by more than 10 percentage points. That this is not yet popular tells you less about Milei than about how brutal his inheritance was. Argentines are tired, and understandably so. March inflation reaccelerated to 3.4 percent on fuel and regulated-tariff catch-ups, and households still feel the squeeze long before they feel the recovery. The Adorni affair has handed the opposition a cudgel. But the fundamental question is not whether the public is weary; it is whether the program is working. Fitch’s upgrade of Argentina to B- on May 5, the first such move in eight years, suggests it is. Weaker polls will complicate the next wave of reforms, which require coalitions Milei does not yet command. They will not, however, unwind what is already law: a balanced budget, a modernized labor code and a sovereign rating that is finally crawling out of distressed territory. The opposition senses an opening but cannot fill it. Axel Kicillof, Cristina Kirchner, Sergio Massa and Mauricio Macri all carry net-negative images. Milei is losing support, but his rivals are not gaining it. That asymmetry, more than any poll, is the story.”
Lara Goyburu, executive director at Management & Fit in Argentina: “Milei’s approval decline reflects three converging pressures that our monthly national tracking at Management & Fit has been registering since late 2025. Our April 2026 survey records 37.2 percent approval (a 9.6-point drop from February) with the disapproval gap reaching its widest point since his administration’s inauguration. The drivers are not merely economic. Inflation remains the top concern cited by respondents, but the sharp rise in the salience of corruption is analytically significant. Milei’s original value proposition rested on a moral rupture with the political establishment. When corruption narratives attach to his own government, they erode that foundational claim, not just the management record. The reputational damage is therefore compounded. For the legislative agenda, declining approval raises the cost of coalition building. Our pre-election analysis already flagged that reputational shocks make support from Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) legislators and provincial blocs more expensive. That dynamic is now more pronounced heading into the 2026 midterm cycle. The opposition’s position, however, requires careful reading. High disapproval of Milei does not automatically convert into electoral capital for challengers. Argentina’s current landscape still lacks a consolidated leadership figure capable of channeling dissatisfaction into a credible alternative. The opposition remains fragmented and reactive, unable to unify beyond rejection of the government. Under these conditions, growing discontent could express itself through abstention rather than a shift in vote share. The critical question for the coming months is not whether Milei’s image deteriorates further, but whether any actor can convert that deterioration into structured political capital. At this stage, that conversion remains an open variable.”
Ana María Mustapic, professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella: “Milei is experiencing what happens to any leader whose government’s performance falls short of the expectations it generated. Significant sectors of the population today are worse off than they were last year and face falling wages, recession and unemployment. Faced with this situation, the president, who does not deny the difficulties, can think of nothing better than to say in a speech: ‘Do you know who has been most affected by this economy in real terms? Me.’ On top of the frustration over the results of economic policy, corruption scandals have emerged. Regardless of their lesser magnitude as compared to the past, they fuel discontent with a president who, in his state of the nation address, promised an ethical government. The fact is that his own chief of staff is embroiled in a scandal and the president stubbornly continues to back him. For now, the opposition has not capitalized on this unfavorable scenario for the government; no challenging alternative leaderships are in sight. This weakness allows the president to press ahead with his economic and legislative agenda under the same conditions in which he has sustained it until now. Whatever he can decide unilaterally, he will continue to do, and in the legislative arena he will keep negotiating support among allied sectors, while pushing issues like political reform onto the agenda to keep the opposition busy fending off changes that could favor the ruling party.”
Carlos Fara, president of Fara Veggetti political consultancy: “The first factor that explains the drop in approval is economics. Although there are several positive macroeconomic indicators, such as the fiscal surplus and an increase in exports, the persistent 3 percent monthly inflation over the last 10 months has eroded wages. Mass consumption remains depressed, and this has caused a widespread bad mood for months. Added to this are suspicions of corruption cases, especially those concerning cabinet chief Manuel Adorni. That drop in support could complicate Milei’s support in Congress, since governors, with whom Milei is forming majorities, are also affected by a decline in tax collection. That is why the government is reducing its structural reforms. It is already known that there will be no tax reform, nor a pension reform this presidential term. The initiatives that will be presented in Congress are not very relevant. The opposition is slowly engaging in dialogue to establish some sort of alliance and legislative coordination. The opposition is finding it difficult to position itself for the coming year and take advantage of deterioration in the president’s approval ratings. The opposition needs to have leadership, which for now it does not appear to have; it needs to generate a critical political mass; and it needs to generate an alternative to Milei. All three things are currently far from sight.”
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