The progressive Sergio Massa and the ultra-liberal Javier Milei will face each other in the runoff election in the Casa Rosada dispute. Progressive Peronist Sergio Massa leads the presidential vote with 36.1%, followed by ultra-liberal Javier Milei with 30.3%. With over 23%, the conservative Patricia Bullrich (Jxc) is far behind.
Argentina will then return to voting on November 19th. Over 35 million citizens were called to the ballot box (compulsory vote) on Sunday to choose the future president from among five candidates. Nobody managed to win in the first round. Massa, candidate of the Unión por la patria coalition, performed better than expected, while Milei, candidate of La Libertad Avanza, did not achieve the expected success.
Even if he failed to make a breakthrough, the anarcho-capitalist Milei, who distorted the political map of Argentina and brandished chainsaws at rallies against the “parasitic caste”, was the undisputed protagonist of election day, the star of Argentina in search of a miracle or the anti- Evita of the 21st century. “We can create the best government in history,” assured the candidate of La Libertad Avanza, accompanied to the polling station by his ever-present sister Karina (the “boss,” as he says). Hundreds of people waited for him on Sunday morning at the Technical University of Buenos Aires, where he received a rock star welcome. With red roses thrown one on top of the other, hands outstretched to touch him, hysterical tears and a police barricade to contain the crowd’s enthusiasm. Who sang: “Se siente, se siente, Milei Presidente”.
You have to wait, Peronism is not ready to give up. Sergio Massa, the son of Italian immigrants, achieved a better result than previously forecast, especially in the key province of Buenos Aires, where the Peronist governor Axel Kicillof was also re-elected. “Whoever governs will have the enormous task of solving many problems,” warned the Union por la patria candidate at the time of the vote, who, as the current Minister of Economy, knows the issue well: inflation at 138%, middle class falling free, 4 of 10 Argentines below the poverty line. His journey was more full of thorns than roses. He had to distance himself from President Alberto Fernández, who left with an approval rating of less than 15%; about MP Cristina Kirchner, who was convicted of corruption, and an economic crisis that he was unable to get under control. Whatever happens, he assured himself as he waited for the results, “Argentina will still exist on Monday.” Excluded from the election campaign was the “hawk candidate” Patricia Bullrich, a member of the right-wing coalition Juntos por el Cambio and a former security minister, who until recently hoped for a comeback.
Now the duel is getting close. On paper, the Libertarian is the favorite in the runoff, but on Sunday evening there was an atmosphere of relaxation at the Peronist headquarters (both Fernández and Kirchner absent). It remains to be seen whether the libertarian populist will actually be able to retain the protest votes, but also win over those of the liberal right and the radicals, or whether the fear of jumping into the void will ultimately disappear. which he represents his extreme proposals will no longer be stronger. Forty years after the end of the military dictatorship, many analysts are wondering whether democracy is in danger or, more simply, whether the “anti-system” Milei will follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump and the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro. Unlike previous presidents, Argentina’s “libertarian” populist does not have a solid political force behind him, although polls predict that Libertad Avanza will go from two deputies (Milei and his deputy) to at least 41 in these elections. Its success is the result of an impoverished and disillusioned nation to which neither the Peronist left nor the traditional right, which alternately held power, could provide an answer. The disheveled king of talk shows and TikTok, who despises China and denies the climate crisis, has won over young people and the discouraged by calling socialists “excrement” and promising to “dollarize” the economy – against the advice of the IMF Argentina owes 44 billion – and “dynamite” to the central bank. Whether he will be able to govern at all if elected remains a mystery.