Presented as a conclusion, it was actually a publication. Patricia Bullrich, the Argentine presidential candidate of the traditional right, held this Monday her most solid rally since her candidacy failed three weeks ago, when she was stunned by the defeat of her “Together for Change” alliance in the primaries. He now has five days to redirect a drifting campaign. At the weekend he announced that if he won, he would appoint his party rival, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, as chief of staff of an eventual government. It was the show of unity his voters had expected. On Sunday we will know whether the gesture didn’t come too late.
To say goodbye to the city of Buenos Aires, Bullrich chose a friendly territory, a wealthy neighborhood, Belgrano, where he knows he has won in elections since 2007. From a stage in the ravines, surrounded by flowering jacaranda trees and spring weather, he said that this would forever mean the end of Kirchnerism and its candidate Sergio Massa; and asked that the dirty work be left to her and not to Javier Milei, the ultra who is now leading all the polls for the first round of elections on October 22nd. The libertarian economist’s promises were “bad and dangerous,” he said.
Patricia Bullrich speaks during her campaign wrap-up on October 16, 2023. Natacha Pisarenko (AP)
Together for Change is the center-right alliance that brought Mauricio Macri to power in 2015. The opposition to Peronism finally managed to return to power for the first time since 1999, and expectations were enormous. But things didn’t go as expected. Macri doubled inflation to as much as 50% and received a $44 billion financial rescue package from the IMF in his penultimate year in office. In 2019, Kirchnerist Peronism returned and Macrism lost its star. The economic debacle of the current administration gave him so much hope that his presidential candidates multiplied, all convinced that the return to the Casa Rosada would only be an administrative procedure. But Milei intervened. With an incendiary speech armed with a chainsaw, the economist seduced millions of Argentines by promising the eradication of the political caste, the closure of ministries, dollarization as a way to combat inflation and even the sale of organs without restrictions.
During the August primaries, nearly 10 million people embraced the ideas of the libertarian, who within months had appropriated the flag of “change” that carried Macri to victory eight years ago. Macrismo saw power slip from his grasp until he finished third in the polls behind Milei and Massa. Bullrich emphasized this Monday that the real change was her and not Milei, who almost called him crazy. And he spoke directly to the majority voters of La Libertad Avanza, young people from all social classes who simply want to destroy everything and start over. “I tell young people that they are right to want change and that they are tired of this Argentina; But they must put that effort into destroying 20 years of Kirchnerism and supporting the only force capable of bringing about real change,” he told them.
Bullrich has less than a week left to convince Argentines that the end to Kirchnerism he has promised will only be possible under his presidency. Milei is dangerous because he wants to deregulate the sale of weapons or dollarize the economy. “His ideas are bad, not even his team believes them. “You can’t dollarize the economy without dollars, don’t buy colored mirrors, because to move Argentina forward you have to work with clear ideas,” he said. “Patricia President,” her supporters shouted, even though there weren’t as many young people in the audience as she would have liked. “I shed tears when I heard that,” says a pensioner accompanied by a poodle, a resident of a neighborhood that once consisted of large brick houses and now lives in the shadow of luxurious skyscrapers.
If people were upset, it wasn’t because of the polls; but at least they felt like their candidate was returning to the ring. She emphasized that only she has a team prepared to lead, recalling that if she wins, Milei will not have the deputies and senators needed to push forward the radical changes she has promised. “We are ready, without lies, without cynicism, without destroying everything. “We are a reliable team, we are not crazy,” he said. He concluded his speech with a “Yes, we can” and took a few minutes to leave the stage. It was obvious he enjoyed the mass bath, one of the last he will receive before next Sunday.