Javier Milei and Sergio Massa, during the debate on October 1st. National Electoral Chamber
A week before Argentines elect their next president, the candidates will face off in a third and final presidential debate this Sunday. The expectation is enormous: the Peronist Sergio Massa and the far-right Javier Milei represent two antagonistic styles and two very different visions of Argentina’s path in this century and the steps to be taken in the next four years. The Peronist Massa is committed to maintaining a strong, albeit more efficient, state; Milei to reduce it to the minimum. Massa is characterized by a dialogic profile, his rival by a disruptive commitment. The polls show a slight advantage for Milei, but also for a significant number of undecided people: their votes on November 19th could tip the scales in favor of one of the two.
Massa, a 51-year-old lawyer, has been in politics for three decades and has headed the economy ministry of Alberto Fernández’s government for the past 14 months. Under his leadership, inflation has doubled to the current 140% and poverty has exceeded 40% (for minors it is 57%). However, he has experience in front of the camera, excellent quick argumentation reflexes and mastery of body language.
Milei embodies all those Argentine citizens who are tired of seeing that despite hard work they cannot make ends meet. To everyone who wants change to end corruption and insecurity. The 53-year-old ultra-liberal economist assures that he will abolish caste privileges and cut public spending until state budgets are balanced. But he is an inexperienced and very hot-tempered candidate, which can play tricks on him in the debate. It also speaks against the fact that his economic proposals – such as dollarization – have been rejected both inside and outside the country, and his social proposals have broken the consensus, such as free public education and health care and condemnation of the Argentine dictatorship, among others.
Massa has done everything possible to distance himself from the government of which he is a member and is trying to turn the second round into a vote on Milei Yes or Milei No. His latest campaign ads emphasize the verbal violence of a rival who has called the pope a “representative of evil,” who wants to cut ties with Brazil – Argentina’s main trading partner – and China and who proposes deregulation of the arms market. . Milei, on the other hand, insists that Massa is one of the key figures of the prevailing Peronism. He blames him for failing to respond to concerns such as economic deterioration and uncertainty. For the La Libertad Avanza candidate on Sunday the 19th the choice will be between continuity or change.
The third presidential debate will again take place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires and will be divided into six main topics: economy, foreign relations, education and health, production and labor, security and human rights and democratic coexistence.
Its rules differ from those agreed for the previous two rounds before the first round on October 22, when there were five candidates in the race, not two. Massa and Milei can move around the stage when it is their turn to speak and are not subject to a maximum number of answers. This time they are not allowed to carry any written material or notes, a proposal that Milei’s team tried unsuccessfully to reverse before the National Electoral Chamber. They are also prohibited from showing cardboard, newspapers or other images to the audience.
The two candidates spent much of the weekend focusing on the debate. Tonight at nine o’clock they will take the stage and have their last opportunity to directly attack the rival’s proposals and defend their own. Millions of Argentines will be watching them.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_