Argentina’s Senate has approved President Javier Milei’s 2026 budget, his administration’s first major law. The budget, passed with cross-party support, implements deep cuts to social spending.

Argentina’s 2026 State Budget was approved by the Senate -after had half the approval of the Chamber of Deputies- and will be enacted in the coming days, marking the first time President Javier Milei’s far-right administration has managed to pass a budget into law. For its first 2 years of management, the Congress had not approved the budgets, so the Executive ruled with extensions from previous years.

The vote resulted in 46 affirmative votes, 25 negative votes, and one abstention, reflecting complicity that extended beyond the ranks of the current government.

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In order to secure a majority, the ruling party Liberty Advances (LLA, in Spanish) seeked support from diverse blocs such as: Republican Proposal (PRO, in Spanish) and the Radical Civic Union (UCR, in Spanish), who largely backed the initiative; Federal Conviction, a Peronist faction that distanced itself from the leadership of the Justicialist bloc.

Text reads: “With 46 votes in favour, 25 against and 1 abstention, the law-project on the General Budget of the National Administration for fiscal year 2026 is approved.”

The Argentina’s 2026 Budget

The budget incorporates significant structural modifications that will cut State expenses, into a neoliberal economic model.

The automatic indexation for family allowances and the Universal Child Allowance (AUH, in Spanish) is eliminated, effectively freezing these benefits despite ongoing inflation.

Meanwhile, the Feeding benefit—a supplement to the AUH consisting of cash transfers for food purchases—will experience a real-term decrease of 15.2% compared to the previous year. Similarly, funding for community kitchens will be cut by 28.9%.

The 2026 Budget marks a decrease of 1% compared to 2025, and a 47.7% drop relative to 2023 (the final year of the Everyone’s Front administration) to the Education and Culture function -which encompasses all expenditures related to these areas, regardless of the jurisdiction responsible for them-, according to the inflation projected by the Government for the next year.

This law further scraps the progressive investment goal to reach 1% of GDP for science and technology, as it defunds the National Fund for Technical Schools.

Regarding pensioners, the minimum retirement benefit would fall by approximately 1%.  A real-term decrease of 10.6% is also recorded in the funds allocated for disability pensions.

The approval of the budget marks a new chapter in the adjustment policy of the Milei’s Government, which has made the reduction of State expenditure the banner of its management.

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