If you had the choice, who would you trust with your children? Dracula or Jack the Ripper? Or who would you buy a car from? And who do you think would cause the least harm to you, your family, your friends, your neighborhood and your country? And who would you choose? Would you vote for either of them as president?
This is the dilemma that plagues millions of Argentines today. According to surveys, between 5 and 12% of the 35.3 million eligible voters do not know who they will vote for in the second round on Sunday, November 19th. To Sergio Massa? To Javier Milei? How can we say when, as Martín Caparrós wrote in these same pages days ago, “the least bad thing is already very bad”?
For readers from other countries who do not know him, Massa is the prototype of the Argentine storyteller in films. And I’m not saying it. Former President Mauricio Macri — with whom he competed, allied and then ran again — called it a “small advantage.” And former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – with whom he has allied, competed and allied… for now – recently called him “Fullero” with a venomous smile and in front of the television cameras. That is, cheaters.
He is aware of his bad reputation. And like a good used car salesman – with the utmost respect for those who dedicate themselves to this noble trade – he tries to do it differently. Like in the presidential debates when he said, more words, fewer words, that they criticized him because he was open to dialogue. Fake. They accuse him of saying that his word is now worth less than a peseta in Spain.
For many, however, Massa represents the last option left for Argentina to avoid falling into anti-politics or ending democracy as we have known it since the end of the dictatorship 40 years ago. And so intellectuals, actors, writers and other public figures stood up for Massa or at least against Milei.
Who is Miley? Also for readers from other countries who do not know him: he is a liberal-libertarian economist with a history of emotional instability, with latent aggression – if not explicit -, with low personal empathy, with very low tolerance for dissenting opinions and with problems in the social field of interaction, but he knew how to embody the boredom of a large part of Argentina towards the prevailing party system or, in his own words, towards the “political caste”.
Like Massa, Milei is also aware of the prevention this causes. He sometimes said that he was too forceful; in another case he had to apologize to a journalist he had verbally attacked; and in others he was results-oriented. “The difference between a genius and a madman is success,” he has said more than once, betting that if he wins he will make history.
For many, however, Milei represents a concrete opportunity to end the “status quo” and sweep away the traditional politicians who have plunged Argentina into economic stagnation in recent decades, with high inflation, increasing poverty and inequality, with insecurity and drug traffickers on the streets , and many young people at the airports go abroad.
Thus, the dilemma for many Argentines could be reduced to one question: what is your limit: massa or milei?
However, this question obscures a third option: not participating in the second round of voting, whether by abstaining, casting a blank vote or annulling the vote. Because, according to many who evaluate this option between a plate of stones and a plate of crap, they prefer to go without food. With an additional argument: choosing Massa or Milei would give greater origin legitimacy to whoever wins. Or in other words, it would make the winner believe that he has public support that he actually does not have, and that he must earn day by day in order to strengthen his legitimacy in office.
This position, in turn, raises numerous other questions that are difficult to answer. Is not voting or canceling the vote or voting blank really an option? If the numbers for absenteeism, zero or blank votes are very high, do they reflect citizens’ dissatisfaction with Massa, Milei and the electoral system that brought us to this situation? Or is this third position an act of cowardice? How will we distinguish those who express their disapproval in this way from those who just wanted to wash their hands and let others decide for them?
In any case, the truth is that on Monday the 20th, either Massa or Milei will come to power. And given this reality, isn’t it our duty as citizens to choose the lesser evil? And in this case, which one is it? This brings us back to the beginning of this text and to the doubts that plague millions of Argentines who do not know what to do. That is why these are sad, uncertain and doubtful days in Argentina. When we have four decades of democracy behind us, we will be slow to vote.
Perhaps the only positive thing we can take from this trap is that it forces us to think. So many people who don’t normally talk about politics spend coffee chats, dinners and lunches evaluating both candidates, sharing information with family and friends, and wondering what to do. That’s what a polis is all about. This is what it means to be a citizen. And perhaps this is a great opportunity to ask ourselves how we came to learn lessons and correct what is necessary – in the electoral system, in the party systems, in the management of public affairs, in the management of the general interest and the common good . – so that we don’t have to choose between Dracula and Jack the Ripper again in the future.
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