Voters in Argentina on Friday weighed political and economic anxieties to elect a new congress, for which President Javier Milei aims to secure a majority.

A renewed approval to the Milei administration is being closely watched by markets and Argentina's main partner, the U.S.

At the low-income neighborhood of Isla Maciel, a zone known for its old tenement houses, residents stood in line to receive food at a soup kitchen.

According to the organizers, over the past few months, there has been a significant increase in people signing up to receive food.

Veronica Leguizamon, 34, an unemployed single mother of four daughters, survives on about $300 in subsidies for the poor, which she uses to buy diapers for her 1-year-old baby. The rest depends on the soup kitchen at Fundación Isla Maciel.

"Before (President Milei) we could choose a meal. Now we can't. Now we have to depend on someone else to know if we eat or not," she said.

The midterm elections will be held amid growing social discontent over the stagnation of the economy and the loss of Argentines' purchasing power.

At the end of 2023, voters backed Milei, an ultra-liberal who, with his disruptive discourse, had promised to end inflation, relaunch the economy, and disrupt the "caste" of the ruling parties.

In the elections that will partially renew Congress, Argentines will elect 24 senators and 127 deputies. The governing party, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances), currently holds six seats in the upper house and 37 in the lower house.

The midterm elections will constitute a test for the ultra-conservative administration, which has lost momentum over the last three months amid an economic slowdown, a drop in consumption, exchange rate instability, and growing fears that the country may be unable to meet its debts.

Less than 2 miles from the tenement houses stands the city's highest-income district, Puerto Madero.

Surrounded by skyscrapers, an imported car salesman thinks the best option is to vote for Milei, again.

"Many things have changed for the better globally, nationally, and economically," said Luciano Naredo, 28. "So we're going to go that way, yes."

In an unprecedented event in Argentina's history, the United States intervened in the unstable local currency market by purchasing pesos and signing a $20 billion currency swap agreement to curb volatility amidst the electoral campaign for Sunday.

However, Trump has conditioned all aid on Milei winning the election against the center-left Peronism led by former president Cristina Fernández (2007-2015), who is currently serving a domiciliary prison sentence and is permanently disqualified from public office due to corruption.

At Isla Maciel soup kitchen, Gerardo Alvarez, 52, thinks Trump's condition will get nowhere. "(Trump), for example, would lend money to Argentina if Milei wins, and I can assure you that they won't win," he said. "People are very dissatisfied."

The elections are preceded by the bitter defeat of Milei's party at the hands of the Peronist party in the September 7 elections to renew the legislature of the province of Buenos Aires, the country's largest electoral district, which renews 35 national deputies on Sunday.

The erosion of social support for Milei has become evident in the last four months despite the deceleration of inflation.

Argentines feel that their economic situation has worsened under an austerity plan of a magnitude Argentina hasn't seen in living memory.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which approved a $20 billion rescue for the South American country in April, has demanded that Milei gain political support to ensure the implementation of the reforms it has requested.

For an entrepreneur who runs a yacht-rental business, Fernanda Díaz, 42, lives in nearly perfect conditions in the Puerto Madero district, but is concerned that Milei's government is losing sight of the rest of the country.

"I actually voted for this government and was really enthusiastic at the beginning, but right now I am disappointed because the country is not just the province of Buenos Aires," she said. "We have provinces in the north, provinces in the south that are in great need, and I believe that the politicians and main officials do not notice those places."

AP Video by Victor R. Caivano