1681541543 The Argentine election campaign is irritated If the opposition wins

The Argentine election campaign is irritated: “If the opposition wins, there will be bloodstained streets”

The Argentine election campaign is irritated If the opposition wins

Argentina’s government and political opposition compete to see who does worse. The first warns of “roads strewn with blood and dead”; the second calls for “half blowing up everything” as the only solution to the crisis that is devastating the country. With three months left for the primary and six for the general election, the campaign is escalating in intensity. Judging by the first signs, it’s going to be a lot tougher than in previous years, when at least the forms were being followed. Javier Milei’s incendiary speech, inspired by Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, finally intoxicates the public debate.

The first stone was thrown by former President Mauricio Macri during a meeting with businessmen on April 12. Macri sees the government’s presidential nominee, whatever it may be, in third place as early as October outside of the second round. The challenge, he says, will then be to face Javier Milei. And convince “angry” voters that they will cast their ballot for the Libertarians’ proposed tear-down amendment. “It’s complicated to face,” he said. “More and more people are getting angry and they believe that everything should be blown up, I believe that everything should be half blown up.” While Macri won’t be running – he excluded himself from the presidential race in March – he is setting the tone, increasingly akin to his favorite, former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, than to Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, with a more dovish streak Profile.

Only a handful of senior officials speak up for the government in the media. One of them is the President’s spokeswoman, Gabriela Cerruti. The other is Minister Fernández, an all-rounder known for his fiery speech. Consulted by the election scenario, Fernández pressed charges against Macri and Milei, whom he insists put in the same bag of far-right extremism. “We see a group of people who are uneducated, with a vocation for harm and harm, and what they are proposing would only come from oppression. The streets are soaked in blood and the dead will produce if given the chance to be a government,” he said.

Shaking the spirit of Milei is the main goal of Casa Rosada. Actions taken by this ultra-liberal economist include dollarization to bring down inflation, closing the ministries of education, health and social development to reduce the deficit, and even closing the central bank forever. She also proposes ending welfare plans and even medical services for the poorest in a country where four in 10 people don’t earn enough to eat.

Macri, on the other hand, is concerned that this radical discourse is gaining a foothold among the youngest and stealing votes from his industry. Therefore, he now proposes to blow up almost everything without clarifying what he would leave standing.

Minister Aníbal Fernández grabbed Macri’s glove, albeit exaggeratedly. It was spokeswoman Cerruti who had the grim task of defending him this Friday. He said he does not share his cabinet mate’s style but accepts the underlying issue as his own. “They will blow everything up, they will break everything. Former President Mauricio Macri has said so, saying: “This time I will not have the patience or slowness that I had the previous time.” This is what Minister Aníbal Fernández was referring to,” he said.

The Minister’s comments had two immediate implications. They promptly contributed to the general rejection of the opposition, while at the same time managing to eclipse for a moment the internal struggles that were bleeding the opposition dry. This week, Buenos Aires Prime Minister Horacio Rodríguez Larreta decided that his district will vote separately for the president and mayor, a move that could benefit candidates from the smallest parties in the coalition. Macri and Bullrich accused him of treason and feared a rupture at the heart of the opposition alliance. Until Aníbal Fernández came and gave them a reason for unity.

As politicians debated street deaths and dynamite, Argentina’s latest inflation rate was released this Friday: 7.7% in March, the highest for a single month since the Corralito crisis of 2001. It’s there, far from the polls, where Argentines’ attention is concentrated.

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