Milei will lay off 50,000 more public employees
“We are going to end up kicking out 75,000 people, so far we’ve sacked 25,000,” declared the president of Argentina at the LATAM Economic Forum 2024.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has clarified this Wednesday his fierce plan to adjust public accounts. After confirming that he will veto the pension modification if it is approved in the Senate, he has anticipated that he is getting rid of 50,000 more public employees.
He made his plans known in front of businessmen at the LATAM Economic Forum 2024, at the Golden Center in the city of Buenos Aires. There, he complained forcefully that the “serial naysayers” have questioned the quality of the cuts that his administration is carrying out.
Milei will lay off 50,000 more public employees
And, furthermore, he has boasted and justified that “90% corresponds to chainsaw and only 10% to blender”. A phrase that has generated some controversy among users of social networks, especially in 'X' (previously known as Twitter).
“My best-known phrase is ‘out’. And they are campaigning around the world with the ‘out’. Which means cutting the ministries in half. That would be reducing the state by half. We are going to end up kicking out 75,000 people, so far we’ve sacked 25,000,” he said.
The numbers don’t match up
Milei is currently in the midst of a dispute with the ATE public employee union over the number of workers who would be expelled from the civil servant ranks by decision of his administration. Likewise, the president has celebrated that “not only will the number of ministries be reduced by half, but discretionary transfers to the provinces and public works will be eliminated.”
It is not the first time that Milei has threatened to expel workers from state employment. He has even given figures that do not adjust to reality. In fact, at the end of March, at the closing of the first day of the Economic Forum of the Americas, he claimed that 50,000 public employees had been fired and another 70,000 hirings were going to be cut.
However, days later Casa Rosada itelf denied those numbers. And at the beginning of April, the Argentine journalist, teacher and politician - presidential spokesperson - Manuel Adorni confirmed that the number of laid off public employees amounted to 15,000, far from the 50,000 that Milei boasted.