Corruption Scandal, Fall of Popularity and Stone Attack on the Streets: Javier’s difficult weeks Milei in Argentina

The confidence rate in the Milei government decreased by 13.6%, according to Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires

The scene was chaos and marked the apex of two critical two weeks for Argentine President Javier Milei.

On Wednesday (27/8), Milei had to be hastily removed during a campaign act in the province of Buenos Aires.

Protesters surrounded their entourage and, among shouts and insults, shot stones and other objects at a vehicle of his electoral caravan.

The attack forced the president to suspend the rally and increased the tensions against the provincial elections on September 7, and the legislative election on October 26.

For Milei, the elections are fundamental. The president needs to increase the number of allied legislators in the Argentine Congress and know if it holds political capital to seek reelection in two years.

Everything indicated that his party, freedom advances, would come as a favorite for the middle -term elections, thanks to the control of inflation and the dollar that brought no further displeasure. But the panorama has changed.

In a report published on Monday (25/8), the Argentine newspaper La Nación pointed out that the first half of August was the worst of Milei’s term, in terms of public confidence in his government.

The newspaper reported that, according to the University Torcuato Di Tella, in Buenos Aires, the government confidence rate fell from a month from 2.45 to 2.12 points, which represents a fall of 13.6%.

Milei was evacuated in the hurry of a rally in the province of Buenos Aires, after a group of protesters shot stones at him | EPA

The evaluation was held before August 20, when the publication of audios that relate the secretary and sister of the president, Karina Milei, to a scandal for an alleged network of bribery at the National Disability Agency (Andis, in the acronym in Spanish).

The markets reacted negatively to the incident, according to the AFP news agency. There was an increase in the country risk index, which evaluates the cost of government indebtedness in foreign currency.

Here we present a summary of what happened in Argentina in the last two weeks.

The leaked audios

The leaked audios were secretly recorded last year. In them, a voice attributed to former andis director Diego Spagnuolo states that Karina Milei would be bribed about the payment of drugs to people with disabilities.

After the leakage, Spagnuolo was deprived and lawyer Gregorio Dalbón, legal representative of former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015), filed a complaint to Argentina justice.

“Karina takes 3%,” says the former government employee in one of the recordings, according to the AFP agency.

Spagnuolo also legally represented Milei and was a frequent presence in the presidential residence. He also guarantees that he has informed the president about the corruption scheme.

Leaked audios accuse the sister and secretary of Argentine President Karina Milei of allegedly received bribery in the purchase of medicines for people with disabilities | Reuters

The president’s sister has not yet commented on the scandal, although the case dominated the headlines and discussions on social networks in Argentina.

On the other hand, the president denied the facts shortly before the campaign act of which he was evacuated in a hurry.

“All he says is a lie,” he said. “We will take you to justice and demonstrate that he lied.”

Last Friday (22/8), federal judge Sebastián Casanello issued 16 search warrants related to the case. At the time, the spagnuolo and directors of the Pharmaceutical Suiz Argentina, mentioned in the leaked recordings, were confiscated.

Legislative coups and increased country risk

The case involving Karina Milei came to public after, on August 21, the Baixa Chamber of the Argentine Congress overturned the presidential veto to a law that declares an emergency situation in complying with people with disabilities and allocating more funds to the sector.

At the same time, the Argentine Senate rejected a series of presidential decrees, which intended to reduce the state budget, and approved the increase in health and public universities.

Argentine political analyst Andrés Malamud summed up, in his X -account (former Twitter), the government’s legislature in recent months.

“Since assuming, the government has faced 34 legislative votes,” he said.

“It was 17 until March 2025 and won 15. There was 17 since April 2025 and lost 16. The composition of the congress did not change, the damage was fully self -inflicted.”

The parliamentary defeats, coupled with the fall of public trust, caused the country risk to rise again to 829 basic points, a level that has not been observed since April.

Analysts indicate that this level of risk makes it difficult for the government to get money in international markets to pay the debt that wins next year. All of this represents a challenge for the Cut program run by Milei since his inauguration in December 2023.

President Javier Milei says the accusations against his sister Karina (pictured) are liars and intends to bring the case to justice | Getty Images

On the other hand, two surveys conducted by Communication companies La Sastrería and Trespuntozero, published on Thursday (28/8) also by the newspaper La Nación, show an unprecedented deterioration of Milei government assessment in the country.

The image of your government has fallen eight points in the last six weeks. Milei fell to third place in the evaluation ranking of political leaders, behind the governor of Buenos Aires province, Axel Kicillof, and former President Cristina Kirchner-his two main opponents.

One of the research analyzed the public’s perception of the case of alleged bribes.

62.5% of respondents believe that audios reflect serious episodes of corruption in the government, while 32.8% consider it to be a political operation, which is the position defended by the Argentine government.

Therefore, the party Freedom advances maintains moderate expectations about its performance in the elections of Sunday, September 7. It also promotes the discourse that the opposition would perform “all kinds of fraud” in the vote.

Originally published by BBC News on August 28 2025

By Ronald Alexander Ávila-Claudio and Agustina Latourette