Argentina’s Javier Milei faces airline privatisation backlash

Union leaders in Argentina’s aviation industry have said they will fiercely resist incoming President Javier Milei’s plans to privatise the state airline, in an early sign of the tumultuous relationship the libertarian is expected to have with the country’s powerful labour movement. Following his victory in a presidential run-off vote on Sunday, Milei said he aimed to hand over shares in Argentina’s state-owned airline Aerolíneas Argentinas to its workers and reduce the state funding on which it relies. “If he wants to take Aerolíneas, he will have to kill us,” said Pablo Biró, leader of Argentina’s airline pilots’ union, on Wednesday. “And when I say kill, I mean literally: he will have to take dead bodies and I’ll sign up first.” The hard-left Unidad Piquetera social movement has announced plans to lead a march through downtown Buenos Aires on Thursday to oppose Milei’s austerity plans, while its leaders will meet to co-ordinate a “battle plan” for the coming months. Milei’s victory by 11 percentage points in Sunday’s election heralds a sharp shift in political direction for Argentina, following four years of unorthodox economic policy under the left-leaning populist Peronist movement. The country is suffering its worst economic crisis in two decades, with annual inflation topping 142% in October. On Tuesday, Edgardo Llano, head of an aviation workers’ union, said Milei’s plan would mean “signing the death certificate” of Aerolíneas Argentinas, which was nationalised in 2008, “because this company doesn’t work without the contributions of the state”. Milei, who has called former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher one of his political heroes, has said he intends to privatise “anything that can be in private hands”, including the state energy firm YPF. The hard-right economist has also pledged major and rapid cuts to government spending to eliminate Argentina’s chronic fiscal deficit.<br/>