Argentina’s Industrialists Break Silence Against Milei

For two years, Argentina’s biggest business groups kept quiet as President Javier Milei dismantled trade barriers, slashed government spending, and let a wave of imports sweep through the economy. That silence ended this week. The Unión Industrial Argentina, the country’s most powerful industrial lobby, issued its firmest public challenge to the government since Milei took office, declaring that “without industry there is no nation” and warning that manufacturers face a “critical situation.”

The statement came in direct response to Milei‘s March 1 speech opening the congressional session, in which he called leading industrialists “corrupt” and described them as “zoo hunters” — creatures incapable of surviving outside a protected enclosure. He singled out specific executives, giving Techint’s Paolo Rocca the nickname “Chatarrín” and tire-maker FATE’s Javier Madanes Quintanilla the moniker “Gomita,” after the latter announced the closure of a major plant.

Two Lobbies, One Message

The UIA’s communiqué, quoting 19th-century President Carlos Pellegrini, acknowledged the government’s progress on fiscal balance, inflation reduction, and structural reforms. But it stressed that the transition to an open economy “is not homogeneous or immediate” and that many companies, especially small and medium enterprises, are enduring low activity, heavy tax burdens, scarce financing, and falling employment. It noted that Argentine industry accounts for 19% of GDP, 27% of national tax revenue, and roughly 1.2 million direct formal jobs, with another 2.4 million employed indirectly across supply chains.

The Asociación Empresaria Argentina, which represents the country’s largest corporations, issued a more measured statement the same day. While praising fiscal consolidation and calling for further tax cuts, it called for “constructive and respectful dialogue between the government and the private sector” — language that appeared to respond directly to Milei’s personal attacks on business leaders.

The Numbers Behind the Anger

The backdrop to the clash is stark. An estimated 21,900 companies have closed during Milei’s two years in office, driven by trade liberalization and a collapse in domestic demand. Imports rose 24.7% in 2025, mostly from Brazil and China. Industrial output contracted for six consecutive months through December, and capacity utilization fell to 53.8%. While the broader economy grew 4.4% last year — after contracting in both 2023 and 2024 — the recovery was concentrated in mining, agriculture, and financial services, sectors that employ relatively few workers.

UIA president Martín Rappallini said the country is going through “a very complex process” and that industry wants to be part of the new economic stage, not discarded by it. He highlighted the particular distress of northern provinces, where purchasing power is the lowest in the country and private-sector employment is scarce.

The Government Doubles Down

Economy Minister Luis Caputo showed no sign of conciliation. Speaking at a Fundación Mediterránea event the same day, he dismissed the protectionist model as “prebendary and corrupt” and argued that shielding inefficient producers forces consumers to buy inferior goods at higher prices. He compared the old industrial policy to “hunting in a zoo” where manufacturers had no incentive even to “buy a rifle with a telescopic sight.”

A Fragile Alliance Fractures

The rupture is significant because big business had been one of Milei’s most reliable constituencies. Rappallini himself had participated in the president’s Pacto de Mayo that produced the labor reform. The FATE closure broke the truce: Madanes Quintanilla shut the plant hours before congress approved the reform, and Milei took it as a personal betrayal. What followed was the first serious confrontation between the government and organized industry — a signal that the political cost of Argentina’s radical trade opening is beginning to exceed what even its corporate supporters are willing to absorb in silence.

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