The Argentine community in the south of Gran Canaria celebrated this weekend when Argentina elected Javier Milei as its new president on Sunday, betting on an outsider with radical views to fix an economy hit by triple-digit inflation, an imminent recession and a growing poverty. There are 600 Argentines living in the south of Gran Canaria, according to data from the 2023 census. Most of them work in hospitality and operate in services, including tourism, themed restaurants. It is a very integrated community that has never generated any event that damages tourism and local coexistence.
"This is gigantic for everyone," Arturo Ovejero, a restaurant businessman from Playa del Inglés, told Maspalomas24H. In Vecindario, tourism workers celebrated Milei's victory shouting "we love Argentina, it's time to turn the page." Miguel Arregui, a bartender at Meloneras, said that "we are outside seeing all that misery and our generation is putting pressure on the Milei presidency so that our country stops being a pariah."
The rise of the 53-year-old economist and former television commentator has been the story of the Argentine elections, which in the Canary Islands were held in the Tenerife consulate. The hegemony of the two main political forces on the left and right has been broken: the Peronists and the main conservative bloc of Together for Change. Milei promises economic changes. His plans include closing the central bank, ditching the peso and cutting spending, potentially painful reforms that resonated with voters angry about the economic malaise but sparked fears of austerity in others.
As many Argentines were not completely convinced by either candidate, some had characterized the vote as a "lesser evil" election: fear of Milei's painful economic medicine versus anger at Massa and his Peronist party over an economic crisis that has left Argentina deeply in debt. and unable to access global credit markets. Milei's victory shakes Argentina's political landscape and economic roadmap and could impact trade in grains, lithium and hydrocarbons. Milei has criticized China and Brazil, saying he will not deal with "communists" and favors stronger ties with the United States.
