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Argentine demonstrators have staged their biggest-yet show of opposition to Javier Milei’s radical attempt to reshape the South American country with a nationwide strike that shuttered schools and businesses, grounded hundreds of flights, and saw tens of thousands of marchers hit the streets, the Guardian reported.

Milei, a boisterous celebrity economist nicknamed “El Loco” (the Madman), became president in December vowing to free Argentina from decades of “decadence and decline” with his libertarian ideas. Since then, the far-right politician has moved speedily to implement what the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage recently called “Thatcherism on steroids” – first with a far-reaching emergency decree; then with a mega-reform bill known as the “omnibus law”.

Together, Milei’s decree and the draft legislation propose hundreds of highly controversial innovations including a wave of privatisations, ferocious spending cuts, a major expansion of presidential powers, and a scaling back of workers’ rights and the right to protest. Nine of 18 government ministries have been closed, including those responsible for education, the environment and women, gender and diversity. Argentina’s currency, the peso, was devalued by more than 50% against the dollar.

Milei claims such moves will rescue Argentina from the “economic hell” he blames on his Peronist predecessors. But the agony has intensified since his inauguration. Monthly inflation hit 25.5% last month compared to 12.8% in November. Annual inflation has reached a three-decade high of 211.4% – even higher than in Venezuela, a country reeling from a decade-long economic collapse.