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Argentina heads to the polls today for midterm elections amid extraordinary economic turbulence. The vote could reveal how much support the country's president still has with the U.S. offering Argentina a multibillion-dollar bailout. Natalie Alcoba reports from Buenos Aires.
NATALIE ALCOBA: It's the most Argentine of images - a crackling fire for a roadside grill. Outside a shuttered ceramics factory in Pilar, former workers gather around the flames. Two months after being locked out, they're still waiting for the severance pay they're owed.
PAULA CASTANEDA: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "They left us on the street with nothing," says 50-year-old Paula Castaneda, surveying donations of food left by neighbors. A mix of falling consumer spending, cheap imports and high production costs has led many factories to close.
OSCAR RUBEN LINDNER: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "You turn on the TV, and all I hear is millions this and millions that," says fellow worker 44-year-old Oscar Ruben Lindner. "But I don't even have $200 so I can eat."
The stakes were always high for President Javier Milei heading into today's critical election. Voters will choose half of the Lower House and a third of the Senate. It's a crucial litmus test for a leader that has made good on his promise to take a chainsaw to public spending.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in non-English language).
ALCOBA: At a campaign rally, the president vowed to stick to his mission and urged apathetic voters to turn out.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT JAVIER MILEI: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "It's either freedom advancing or Argentina going backwards," he yells through a megaphone. With his popularity at an all-time low, polls ahead of the midterms show a tight race between Milei's party and the left-leaning Peronist opposition that once dominated Argentine politics. The mood now is a far cry from earlier days of his presidency, when headlines gave him reasons to boast. He brought monthly inflation down to 2% and balanced the national budget.
JONATAN MORENO: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "There's no other way to put it," says Jonatan Moreno, a 21-year-old Milei supporter. "Javier came to offer a solution. As young people, most of us wanted to leave the country. Javier gives us hope that we didn't have."
But the $20 billion currency swap with the U.S. has added to the pressure, raising doubts about the sustainability of Milei's economic plan and what it might ultimately cost Argentina after a thinly veiled warning from his ally, Donald Trump.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.
ALCOBA: The U.S. says it's working to secure another 20 billion in private and sovereign financing. Argentina still owes the IMF more than 56 billion with payments due early next year. Milei's austerity drive has cut about 50,000 public jobs and rolled back subsidies on transit and gas. Prices for internet, health insurance and utilities have soared. His government has eased import rules, flooding the market with foreign goods and squeezing local businesses, like the ceramics factory. Back in Pilar, macroeconomics turn micro.
LINDNER: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "When I got there, everyone was outside already, and the door was locked," said Oscar Lindner, recalling the day the company closed. Lindner and his fellow workers say the company's trying to replace longtime employees like them with cheaper labor, and they blame the Milei government for failing to enforce labor laws.
LINDNER: (Speaking Spanish).
ALCOBA: "We're all calves for them," says Oscar Lindner. "If you look at an old film like "Robin Hood," the only person who ate beef was the king, and everyone worked for the king. We're in the same situation."
More than 55 days later, and they're still waiting for the money that they're owed, pleading for things to turn around soon for them and Argentina.
For NPR News, I'm Natalie Alcoba in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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