This article addresses the political crisis in Argentina in 1999-2001, under the government of the Alianza which succeeded the Justicialist Party following the introduction of neoliberal reforms in the nineties. We analyze the continuity of neoliberal policies of crisis management, the rise in social conflict and the survival of corrupt practices that led the Alianza towards an unprecedented process of internal disintegration and social delegitimization. The political crisis was aggravated by the large increase in negative voting and the Alianza’s defeat in the legislative elections of October 2001, and ended with a popular uprising that toppled the government in December, in a context of economic depression and financial bankruptcy.