Argentina's President Javier Milei gestures while delivering his first policy speech to parliament during the inauguration of the 142nd ordinary session of Congress in Buenos Aires on March 1, 2024.
Argentina's Javier Milei has been accused of hypocrisy for orchestrating a substantial increase in presidential pay while pushing through an austerity package, in a scandal that has rocked the right-wing populist's government.
Opposition lawmakers hit out at Milei over the weekend, sharing details on social media that showed his gross monthly salary rising to just over 6 million Argentinian pesos ($7,073 with Argentina's official exchange rate) last month. It reflected a 48% increase in presidential pay from January.
Milei said during a televised interview on Monday that he had ordered the dismissal of Labor Secretary Omar Yasin over the scandal, reportedly saying a salary increase for himself and top government officials was "an error that should not have been made."
The libertarian economist, who has often been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump, sought to defend the pay increase by claiming it was automatically triggered by a decree signed by former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 14 years ago.
Opposition lawmakers, however, said the president's own signature was used on a February decree that enabled the pay increase.
"I have just been informed that as a result of a decree signed by former president Cristina Kirchner in 2010, which established that political officials should always earn more than public administration employees, an automatic increase was granted to the political staff of this government," Milei said Saturday in a post via social media platform X, according to a Google translation.
"In a time of crisis like the current one in which Argentine society is making a heroic effort, politicians have to be the first to lend a helping hand," he added. "The political joke is over."