Agustín Rossi and Victoria Villarruel, vice presidents of Sergio Massa and Javier Milei, respectively.El País / Bloomberg
Ten days before the second round of Argentina’s presidential election, the vice-presidential candidates, the Peronist Agustín Rossi and the right-wing extremist Victoria Villarruel, held an exciting televised debate. Both repeatedly accused each other of lying and looked for their rival’s weak points. Rossi highlighted the break in relations with Brazil and China, which Javier Milei’s party defends, as well as promised cuts to public education and healthcare and his call for a military dictatorship. The candidate for La Libertad Avanza (LLA) accused the Peronist of selling Argentines a fantasy world: “They had four years to change and they didn’t. Which country do you offer us more than a simple lie? Villarruel also listed the numerous corruption scandals surrounding Kirchnerism.
The two candidates experienced their toughest moments in the four-minute free discussion following each of the four topics addressed: the economy and labor; security and defense; health, education and social policy; and justice, human rights and transparency. In some segments, Rossi and Villarruel spoke over each other without hearing each other, while the moderators urged them to do their best to respect each other. Rossi, tired of the interruptions, accused Villarruel of “having had a lot of violence in his discursive question, like Milei,” while she replied that it was a debate: “If you want to give a monologue, go to the theater.”
The candidate of the ruling Union for the Homeland (UxP) alliance stressed that “it is a bad decision by Javier Milei to want to break off trade relations with Brazil and China,” since they are “two of Argentina’s most important trade destinations.” This Wednesday, Milei reiterated that he would not meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “because he is a communist and corrupt.” Villarruel downplayed the matter, recalling that Kirchnerism also favored some diplomatic relations and banned others for ideological reasons: “Do not come to play Mother Teresa, because you have fought with countless nations to join Bolivia, Venezuela and to join Nicaragua.”
The current chief of staff defended the importance of free public education for the progress of Argentines, recalling that if he had had to pay for it, as Milei suggests, millions of Argentines would not have been able to enter university studies, as in his case was the case. . She also criticized the LLA’s attacks against the radical Raúl Alfonsín, Argentina’s first president after the return to democracy, in 1983. The far-right candidate accused him of a hypocritical speech: “Rossi defends education and health, which they do not use.” . Every time they have a medical problem, they go to a private sanatorium.” He also denounced that the current government has done nothing about the insecurity that Argentines suffer: “You see that you have some very interesting figures say, but in real life, when the sun goes down, those who are in the suburbs have to barricade themselves at home,” Villarruel said.
The La Libertad Avanza candidate read a portion of her speeches, but was particularly pertinent when she spoke about the corruption scandals and court cases involving Kirchnerism. Among them, he cited the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, the bags of dollars that a former high-ranking official of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner threw into a monastery, the former Buenos Aires chief of staff’s vacation on a luxury yacht and the illegal espionage scandal that emerged this week known. “Then tell us, Rossi, what it’s like to spy on judges,” he said, referring to the Peronist candidate’s time at the Federal Intelligence Service. The candidate used Milei’s campaign slogan to conclude many of her interventions: “Continuity or change.”
Rossi dedicated the block to human rights to commemorate the atrocities of state terrorism between 1976 and 1983 and the consequences of this systematic plan that continue to this day, as is the case with those who still do not know where their missing relatives or the Babies are those that the oppressors have stolen and given to families who have raised them under a false identity. “We will continue to look for them,” warned Rossi of the grandchildren that the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are looking for. “There were 30,000 prisoners missing. Stop claiming dictatorship,” he stressed. Villarruel, who reduced the systematic plan of state terrorism to “some excesses” of the military, denied this: “There were not 30,000, stop lying.”
During the questions and answers, the Peronist candidate reminded her that a photo shows her marching for the release of soldiers convicted of crimes against humanity. “Do you agree with the freedom of genocidal people?” Rossi asked him. The far-right candidate avoided answering. “What I think is important is that we recognize that there were victims of terrorism here who have no human rights,” he replied, referring to the victims of the guerrillas who operated in Argentina in the 1970s.
At the last minute, both summarized the proposal represented by their political areas. The LLA candidate defined Massa as “the past marked by corruption, insecurity, lack of education and inflation.” In contrast, he assured that the formula cited by Milei is “the future of an Argentina full of hope, with the police that protect, the justice without fear, the doctors who help to relieve the pain.” The candidate called for the vote , to “change Argentina forever.” For his part, Rossi assured that two social models are at stake. “With Sergio Massa, we invite you to live in a society that favors family, health, education and work, a society without violence, where none of your dreams have a price,” he concluded.
This Sunday it’s Massa and Milei’s turn. Both will star in the third and final presidential debate. It will be his last opportunity to stand in front of the cameras before the November 19 election.