What is deregulation? What is transformation? Sometimes it’s the simplest questions that best illustrate the depth of the problem. For decades, Argentina lived in a regulatory ecosystem that appeared designed not to support the country’s creative energy but to monitor, slow down and tame it. A network so dense and sticky that it ultimately became our true internal border: an intangible border but more impassable than the Cordilleras.
When we took on the commitment to accompany President Javier Milei’s vision for the liberation of Argentina, we knew we were facing two battles at once. An external phenomenon, visible in the daily life of Argentines, made up of papers, decrees, seals and regulations that accumulated like geological layers of a hypertrophied state. And another internal, cultural, much more difficult one: changing the chip of Argentines, reprogramming decades of emotional and conceptual dependence on a state that promised to solve everything, but which in practice was not only dedicated to preventing almost everything, but was a mask behind which countless privileges and kiosks hid.
The first of these battles – the regulatory one – was in some ways the easiest to overcome. It was there: a mountain of rules that didn’t regulate, but hindered. An endless collection of demands that made every investment an administrative crossroads; every small undertaking, a heroic act; every innovation, in a suspicion. Argentina had naturalized the absurd: asking for permission, asking for permission. The framework at times included an unusual regulatory pyramid, starting with a law, continuing with a decree regulating that law, then another decree regulating that regulation, and so on in an endless chain.
Deregulation was not about arbitrarily lifting controls. It relieved a country that had forgotten how to walk. In every corner of the public service we find a shackle that immovably anchored Argentines. A stone in the shoe of every entrepreneur, every project, every idea for progress. It was absurd that Argentinians did not tell us that it was difficult to produce or bring good products to market, but rather that it was difficult to overcome the obstacles put in place by the government.
But the second battle, the cultural one, is, in my opinion, the really crucial one. Because no structural change can be sustained in the long term if the minds of those who inhabit it do not change. For decades, Argentina was trapped in an incentive ecosystem that rewarded privilege, punished freedom, and confused rights with perks. The political, economic and trade union caste knew how to deal with this discretionary universe in which stagnation was a business for a few and a quiet tragedy for many.
Liberating the country means breaking this narrative. This is obviously unpleasant for the few vocal people who see their privileges at risk. But at some point this also applies to the rest. Because freedom is uncomfortable. Because autonomy creates dizziness after living on an artificial framework for years. It is as if we have lived in a cage for many years but we do not dare to get out of it, even though the door is open today.
But the direction is clear: Argentinians have chosen change, without shortcuts, without make-up. They asked us to address the root of the problem. Because we lost our families. Two million of our children were already gone. And we as a society did not want and could not allow this wound to continue to grow. And we did it. We do it.
These two years left profound lessons. One of them is that the transformation of the state is not a turning point, but a moral restructuring. Deregulation does not open the door to chaos; It closes the door to arbitrariness. A state that says less, intervenes less, but does it better; and above all, what it does not do so that the Argentine can do it in freedom. It ceases to be an invasive protagonist and becomes the guarantor of clear, horizontal and stable rules.
We discovered something extraordinary: when you release society’s energy, society responds. Where there was fear before, creativity emerged. Where there used to be endless processes, projects flourished. Where there was once an economy that seemed to be running in slow motion, we now see signs of momentum, investment, risk and future.
This transformation we have undertaken still has a long way to go. No society that has been trapped for so long can rearm itself overnight. But for the first time in a long time, Argentina stopped going in circles. We have abandoned the logic of the patch, the “in the meantime”, the simulation of changes that have changed nothing. We are facing real, structural, profound change. And the Argentinians accompany them.
The country is already taking notice. He feels it in the restoration of trust. In the belief that the effort will be worth it. In the idea – still tentative, but increasingly – that we can project a long-term Argentina.
What is coming is a freer, more dynamic and fairer Argentina. An Argentina where achievement is no longer an uncomfortable word, where innovation is not timid and where progress is no longer the exception but becomes the norm.
It is a great honor for me to work with the great team that we form at the Ministry for Deregulation and State Reconstruction. But our work is impossible without the leadership and conviction that our President Javier Milei shows every day. He has given us a clear course that will enable us as a government to make the progress we have already seen and that is yet to come. But as Javier says, the real achievement is neither institutional nor personal: it is cultural. Argentina rediscovers its best version. You are encouraged to dream. Start believing. That in itself is a revolution after so many years. Long live damn freedom!
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