Milei, a libertarian economist and television pundit who rode a brash political style to the presidency, has been trying to capitalise on his political honeymoon by quickly overhauling as much of Argentina as he can.

After cutting spending, laying off public workers and devaluing the currency, he has turned his focus to sweeping legislation that would have consequences for the economy, elections, labour, public safety, the environment, the arts, science, health and even how Argentinians divorce. The omnibus bill, voting on which has now been delayed until next week, would also consolidate more power in his hands.

That has sparked the blowback from labour. The unions already won a preliminary injunction this month against some of Milei’s efforts to amend labour laws via presidential decree.

Labour revolts have derailed government campaigns to make significant changes in Argentina before, but Milei is signalling that he will take a tougher stance against protests that turn disruptive. He has proposed docking the pay of government workers who partake in demonstrations, and increasing penalties against people who block roads so that they could face potential prison time.

He has also moved fast. In his first days on the job, Milei made deep federal spending cuts, laid off thousands of government workers and halved the number of federal ministries to nine from 18. He also officially devalued the Argentine peso by more than 50 per cent, bringing the government exchange rate much closer to the market’s measure of the currency — but also causing prices to soar.

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From November to December, prices increased 25.5 per cent, compared with 12.8 per cent a month prior.

Argentina’s annual inflation rate is now at 211 per cent, which puts the nation of 46 million roughly on par with Lebanon for the world’s highest inflation. Argentina’s prices are climbing faster than those in Venezuela.

Milei is also attracting support from conservatives abroad. Last week, he gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he argued that unfettered capitalism is the only model to reduce poverty and that socialism, feminism and environmentalism threaten global progress by pushing government regulation.

“You are heroes,” he told the Davos crowd. “You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we’ve ever seen.”

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The speech went viral, promoted by various conservative and right-wing voices as a clear distillation of what was wrong with modern society.

“Good explanation of what makes countries more or less prosperous,” Elon Musk said when sharing a video of the speech. Later, the billionaire posted a doctored image of a man watching Milei’s speech while having sex, a post viewed 113 million times.

A Brazilian politician later posted that she played the speech for her unborn baby in the womb, and former US president Donald Trump weighed in on his Truth Social platform, saying that Milei was “MAKING GREAT PROGRESS” in his effort to “MAKE ARGENTINA GREAT AGAIN!”