Retirees on the edge: Argentina’s protesting pensioners

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By Tomas Cuesta

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Every Wednesday, 89-year-old Olga Beatriz Gonzalez eats a simple breakfast, picks up donations of bread and vegetables for the soup kitchen she runs from her home in the Buenos Aires suburbs, then starts making protest signs for the weekly demonstration she will attend in the city center.

She is retired but not resting. Along with many older Argentines, she hustles to make ends meet, to help others struggling, and to push for life to improve.

There is little sign, though, of positive news on the horizon for Gonzalez or her friends. The Argentine pension system is stretched beyond breaking point, with nowhere near enough income to pay out what many had expected after years of hard work.

The government of President Javier Milei – whose party will try to win more congressional seats on Sunday – says the only solution is tight fiscal adjustment to stimulate investment and long-term growth. There is no more money, in other words, not in the short term.

“We are people who have done our duty, that is, we are doing our bit and reaching the last part,” said Gonzalez. “And we don’t want to arrive in so much need.”

“It really upsets me when people tell me ‘I can’t buy medicines … because if I buy medicines I won’t be able to pay the rent and will be out on the street.’ What does this person do if they don’t have a soup kitchen? There are many who have had their electricity cut … I give them pasta and they have no means of cooking it.”

In January, Milei’s government announced Argentina’s first budget surplus in 14 years. But it has come at a cost. Energy and transport subsidies have been slashed, while the purchasing power of retired people has fallen 23% since Milei took power, said economist Enrique Dentice.

“Today the priority of pensioners is covering their groceries and not much else,” Dentice said. “It’s not clear how that will get better. The government stance is ‘wait and see,’ but time is passing and pensioners cannot wait.”

PROTESTING OUTSIDE CONGRESS

In front of the neoclassical National Congress building in downtown Buenos Aires, protesters – retirees and their supporters – face down lines of police in riot helmets every Wednesday, waving sky-blue and white Argentine flags and signs saying ‘No one is saved alone’ or ‘The next old person will be you’.

“I tell the other retired people there’s no shame in asking for help, but what they should do to get us out of this mess is join the demonstrations. Don’t stay behind a TV,” said Gonzalez. She likes to evoke her heroine, Evita Peron, Argentina’s 1950s-era first lady who remains beloved by many of the country’s poor.

Milei government representatives did not reply to requests for comment for this story. In May, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said: “We understand … what has happened to retirees over the last 20, 30, 40 years, and we understand the solution is not magic, but a solution based on the real economy.”

He said that for pensions to improve, salaries and contributions from workers must increase.

“That can only be achieved under one condition, which is investment and growth. There is no other way, because resources are finite,” Adorni said.

Not all older Argentines are opposed to government policies. Some have built up savings in dollars over the years – billions have been squirreled away under mattresses and in safes. Some think Milei, in power since December 2023, should be given more time.

“In no way do we want a return to the previous government,” said 75-year-old retired teacher Margarita Ruiz. Milei’s plan was “the only way of saving our economy,” she said.

Luis Relinque, also 75, says he does not really support any political party, but he joins the Wednesday protests. Like many others at the demonstrations, he receives the minimum monthly pension – which in October was just over 396,000 pesos, or about $266 – that he says is not enough to make ends meet.

He buys alfajores – a traditional Argentine cookie – in bulk then sells them from a box with a handwritten sign outside his house or to hospital visitors on Sundays. That earns him enough to buy groceries on Mondays.

“I don’t go hungry, but I go without,” he said, sitting alongside his small dog. Treats he used to give his granddaughter such as an ice cream or a visit to the theater he can no longer afford. He used to gather with friends on Fridays to play cards and enjoy a meal, but that has also stopped.

“I haven’t seen my friends in five or six months. Previously in the club we ate a barbecue, a stew, it was really nice,” lamented Relinque.

“Now it’s all gone.”

(Reporting and photography by Tomas Cuesta; Additional reporting by Lucila Sigal and Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Daniel Wallis)