MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Polls show Argentine distrust of Milei's shift on the Falklands

Photo: Nicolás Aguilera/AFP

Two private Argentine pollsters released findings this week pointing to an adverse reception of President Javier Milei's shift on the Falklands, even though the sovereignty claim commands broad consensus in Argentine society.

The consultancy Analogías, which surveyed views of the national government between September 5 and 8, reported that 61% of respondents expressed distrust of the president's new position: 49.8% said they did not believe him at all and 11.2% believed him little. The firm did not publish technical details such as sample size or margin of error.

Monitor Digital, which analyzed 89,900 mentions of the government on social media, ranked the Islands as the second axis of the official digital conversation, clustered around terms such as sovereignty, measures, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its director, Diego Corbalán, told Perfil the volume did not translate into support: “In some way the government managed to place the issue, but it is not clear that all of it works to its benefit.”

The same study played down the reach of the matter beyond political circles. Across nearly a thousand Google trends recorded in the week after the September 3 televised address, the cluster associated with the Islands appeared only at 27th place, with some 50,000 searches, and the foreign policy category accounted for 0.8% of the total, far below sports and entertainment.

The sequence began with that address, in which Milei asserted sovereignty over the archipelago and announced measures against oil development. The following day the government confirmed sanctions against individuals and companies linked to that activity, and this week it is preparing to send Congress a National Sovereignty Defense bill.

The announcements followed the World Cup episode in July, when National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva endorsed a ban on flags and shirts referring to the Islands during the semifinal between Argentina and England. The players themselves defied the measure by displaying a banner at the end of the match, and the episode led to the suspension of debate on the land ownership bill in the Senate.

On Sunday the government distributed to the press an institutional video by Santiago Oria, director of audiovisual production at the Presidency, combining statements by Milei, remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump on a possible review of Washington's neutral position, and footage of the match against England, set to terrace music. Milei and La Libertad Avanza figures shared the piece.

Corbalán criticized the strategy in political terms: in adopting it, he said, the libertarians “embrace the whole Kirchnerist populist mode,” which he described as chauvinism.

Islanders confirmed their status as a British Overseas Territory in the 2013 referendum, with 99.8% of the vote.