> President’s popularity falls as officials face graft allegations and unemployment climbs

> Perched on a balcony overlooking Argentina’s lower house of Congress, President Javier Milei fixed a wide grin as his cabinet chief Manuel Adorni addressed parliament.

>“I’ve committed no crime and I’m going to prove it in the courts,” Adorni declared, referring to a federal investigation launched last month into his possibly illicit enrichment. The topic dominated five hours of heated questioning by lawmakers on Wednesday.

>The meeting — nominally a routine government progress report that is almost never attended by Argentine presidents — became a dramatic political set piece after two months of scandal and economic challenges had battered the right-wing reformist government.

>Milei’s approval rating has dropped from the mid-40s in February to the mid-30s this month, according to several polls. And confidence in his administration plunged 12 per cent in April, its fourth consecutive monthly fall, in a closely watched index by Torcuato di Tella University.

>“When Milei became president I celebrated like we’d just won the World Cup, but now I’m pretty disillusioned,” said Federico Freire, 36, who runs a corner shop in the centre of Buenos Aires...

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