President Javier Milei reappeared after nearly 10 days without a public appearance, delivering an effusive speech in which he dismissed concerns over rising unemployment, falling wages and companies closing during his administration.
“Let’s see the kind of stupid things people repeat every day, like ‘people can’t make ends meet,’ or ‘technologic progress destroys jobs’?” he said in a mocking tone while speaking at the closure of the 26th Council of the Americas, an event that gathers high-profile businesspeople.
Milei said that the economic data contradicts the criticism of his government, and joked: “I don’t know whether reporters hate data more than zurdos hate water,” implying that left-wing supporters are dirty.
While unemployment has not increased dramatically, it stood at 7.8% in the first quarter of the year, 0.3 percentage points higher than in the last quarter of 2025 and 2.1 percentage points above the level when Milei took office in December 2023.
The number of unemployed reached 1.1 million people.
