Argentine President Javier Milei closed the Council of the Americas conference in Buenos Aires on Thursday with a combative address in which he accused the Kirchnerist opposition of undermining his government’s pro-market agenda. Speaking at the Alvear Palace Hotel to domestic business leaders and representatives of multilateral lenders, Milei said his first 18 months in office had already lifted “12 million people out of poverty” and framed the 7 September mid-term elections as a chance to “definitively end Kirchnerism.” The annual gathering, organised by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, had earlier heard Economy Minister Luis Caputo reassure investors that a surprise legislative defeat the previous day would not derail fiscal consolidation. “We will not move an inch from our economic programme,” Caputo said, calling the parliamentary setback—a vote to boost disability benefits—an expected short-term obstacle in a “revolutionary” reform process. Former Central Bank governor Federico Sturzenegger echoed the administration’s criticism of Congress, arguing lawmakers were trying to preserve a “colonisation of culture” fostered by past Kirchnerist governments. Milei, who entered the venue to applause from invited executives, asserted that previous politicians had merely “administered decline” while his coalition “dares to dream of greatness.”