Opposition candidate says ‘hope will overcome fear’; Slogan made famous in Lula’s inaugural speech in 2003
Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei (of the La Libertad Avanza coalition and who declares himself a libertarian) launched his latest commercial this Thursday (11/16/2023). The propaganda countered his opponent’s video, Sergio Massa (of the Unión por la Patria coalition and Minister of Economy in the government of Peronist Alberto Fernández), who ran campaigns to criticize and incite fear of Milei. The second round of the presidential election will take place on Sunday (November 19th).
Milei’s video was posted on her YouTube channel with the title “La esperanza vento al miedo” (“Hope conquers fear” in Portuguese). The motto was used by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in his inaugural address on January 1, 2003 and repeated in a speech to the UN General Assembly (United Nations) in 2023.
The tone Milei adopts in its latest advertising effort is milder than that of the entire campaign. In the video, the candidate appears facing the camera, with Argentine flags at the back of the room he occupies. He criticizes the “political class” for spreading “an enormous amount of lies” about the opposition in order, in his opinion, to “frighten and paralyze” voters.
Milei says she wants to “embrace the ideas that have made Argentina a great country” and counters Massa’s criticism: “We will not privatize healthcare, we will not privatize education, we will not reform Incucai.” [Instituto Nacional Central Único de Ablação e Coordenação de Implantes]“We will not privatize football, we will not allow the unrestricted import of weapons.” Finally, he asks voters not to be afraid and to choose “change” so that “hope overcomes fear.”
Watch (1 min 23 sec):
According to CNN Brasil, marketer Pablo Nobel, an Argentine citizen living in Brazil, traveled to Buenos Aires last week to work on the final phase of Javier Milei’s campaign. The publicist has already worked on the campaigns of Aécio Neves (PSDB) in 2014 and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) for the government of São Paulo in 2022. In Argentina, Nobel collaborated with Peronists Alberto Fernandez in 2019 and Daniel Scioli, in 2015.