'You're either poor or rich' The Argentinians struggling under Milei's austerity drive

Francisco Jiménez spends at least eight hours a day, seven days a week, navigating the streets of Buenos Aires as a delivery rider, yet he struggles to make ends meet.

- Tiago Rogero and Facundo Iglesia Buenos Aires

Next month, he will have to leave his rented house on the outskirts of Argentina's capital and move with his wife and three children to his mother-in-law's flat because he can no longer afford the rent.

"The economy is complicated, my life is complicated because, well, I have three children - they're growing up, so they eat twice as much ... and things keep getting more expensive," said Jiménez, 32.

Even so, in last Sunday's midterm elections, which renewed about half of Argentina's congress, he voted for La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the party of the president, Javier Milei.

After a campaign in which the US president, Donald Trump, announced a $40bn (£30bn) bailout for the country and made further aid conditional on the victory of his Argentinian counterpart, LLA defeated the Peronist opposition by a wide margin.

The days before the vote were widely described as the lowest point of Milei's nearly two years in power, marked by an economic downturn and corruption allegations. Even the president admitted to being surprised by the sweeping result.

Jiménez said that, despite the setbacks, he had voted for LLA because the opposition had “been in power too long and done too much harm".

Argentinians such as Jiménez, who are struggling to make ends meet, are now the majority.

After taking office in December 2023, Milei, an economist and former TV pundit, launched a "chainsaw" austerity plan, cutting federal spending, freezing wages and pensions, halting public works and slashing subsidies. To meet his zero-deficit target, he also introduced a "shock therapy" approach to the peso, initially devaluing it by almost 55%.