AFP
The Argentine country, fed up with politics, leans uncomfortably towards Milei
While overseeing a wheat field, farmer Javier Sunblad says he’s “tired of politics.” Without much conviction, the milk producer Máximo Russ will vote for the libertarian and right-wing extremist Javier Milei. The countryside, a source of Argentina’s wealth, is heading uncomfortably into the presidential runoff. In Saladillo, a town of 30,000 people less than 200 kilometers from Buenos Aires, in Argentina’s agricultural production center, the right-wing vote predominates with strongly anti-Peronist rural employers. , against the candidate Sergio Massa, the current Minister of Economy. Massa, who was the most voted nationally in the first round (37%), came third in Saladillo behind Milei and former Together for Change conservative candidate Patricia Bullrich, who supported the Libertarians when she was eliminated from the runoff. Pablo Cicaré, 52 years old and third generation in livestock marketing, expects good profits from a herd of 200 premium Angus cows whose calves lie at their feet and are pregnant again. He would prefer not to give away his vote, but is for “free export”, as Milei advocates, and against “populist politics”, which he identifies with Massa. “For years we have voted not for the one we like best, but for the one we like the least,” he said. Sunblad, on the other hand, won’t vote for Milei, but doesn’t fully trust Massa either. – Mistrust – Argentina’s agricultural exports, one of the world’s largest food producers, account for nearly 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. However, if the agro-industrial production chain is taken into account, the contribution to GDP is 25%. The quiet streets of Saladillo, with their low-rise houses and flowering trees, have nothing to do with the election campaign. Only a Massa sign along the route reminds us that elections are taking place. None from Milei. “I personally don’t like any candidate,” explains Sunblad, 62 years old and for 30 years the manager of a livestock farm with 2,000 hectares of soybeans, wheat and 400 head of cattle. Production prospects are promising after a disastrous agricultural campaign due to the worst drought of the century. But there are also fears that when Massa takes office on December 10, the government will seek to tax farm income even more heavily. “Paying taxes is not bad, but if they don’t steal them,” said the farmer, worried about the fate The rural school is at the end of a dirt road that is difficult to drive when it rains. “It has 22 students, children of farm workers. “Will Milei still be open?” he asked. The libertarian supports a controversial payment model for public education “that doesn’t apply to schools like this,” he said. Even if he is suspicious, he leans towards Massa, “because in a country with great economic inequality, with 40% poverty, it has to be that way.” “We have to be a strong state,” he said. “My wife will vote blankly,” he explained. For the political advisor Carlos Germano, “although he did everything, Massa could not achieve the trust of the rural population that requires predictability of medium and long-term policies.” – “Only.” Option” – For Carlos Achetoni, President of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, Milei is “an option, not a choice.” The country elects him, tired of “years of aggressive policies” expressed in high taxes, export restrictions and exchange controls. The gap between the official foreign exchange market and the parallel market of more than 150% leads to annual inflation of 143%. In Junín, northwest of Saladillo, Máximo Russ declares his support for Milei and is not afraid of the most controversial libertarian measures he thinks about mere political marketing. “My candidate was Bullrich, but the only option left to me is him. I agree with his ideas of opening the economy, eliminating the budget deficit, reducing government spending and not establishing relations with communist governments. ” he listed. Instead, he qualified other libertarian ideas with which he disagrees, such as dollarization, the free carrying of weapons or the sale of human organs. “They won’t use them because they don’t make sense. They’re just Expressions to attract the public,” he reflected. – Milei, a utopia – In 2022, the agricultural sector exported 49,581 million dollars, 8.5% more than in 2021, a vital support for the indebted Argentine economy. “The country “It has a very important place in public life, it is an economic burden in times of difficulty to maintain a cycle of growth,” said historian Roy Hora, a doctor at Oxford University and an academic at the University of Quilmes. But its political influence is very small. “Peronism has historically harmed rural areas with policies more favorable to other sectors. That’s why there are always tensions,” he recalled. Bullrich’s defeat pushed the rural area “from its natural place of center-right to a more radical, anti-state, anti-tax place,” said. “Many producers see Milei as a light at the end of the tunnel, a kind of utopia.”sa/nn/lm/dga