José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Ernesto Samper and Michelle Bachelet.Getty / AP
Former presidents, politicians and Nobel laureates from Latin America and Europe came together in a manifesto to support the candidacy of Peronist Sergio Massa in the second round of Argentina’s November 19 elections. At the head of the text are the former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the Spaniard José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Colombian Ernesto Samper as well as other politicians such as the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and the former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta. and two Nobel Peace Prize awards, the Argentinian Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and the Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú. “Democracy is above all a path, and now it is urgent to defend what we have already walked and put an end to anti-democratic positions [Javier] Milei and his neoliberal proposals,” the document says.
The signatories adhere to “the program for the defense of democracy and political and social renewal,” which, as they put it, “is represented by the unity candidacy of Sergio Massa,” and defend “the promotion of a progressive Euro-Latin American agenda.” based on “close collaboration”. The text, distributed on Friday via a portal allowing new signatories to join, calls for the “restoration of national harmony” but also warns: “It is not enough to stop neo-fascism.” Argentina faces enormous economic challenges. “We need a government that rewards good management and transparency, leaves clientelism behind and fights corruption at all levels.”
Argentina reaches the elections after a very long campaign: the candidates faced off in the primaries in August and the first round in October. Next Sunday, Massa from the Peronist coalition Unión por la Patria and the far-right Javier Milei from La Libertad Avanza will face off in the second round of voting. The first is a 51-year-old lawyer with 30 years of political experience who has tried to present himself as a dialogue-oriented candidate who will form a “national unity” government if he becomes president. The Peronist has tried to distance himself from Kirchnerism, the most progressive wing of the movement to which he belongs. The second is 53 years old and has two years of political experience. The ultra-liberal presents himself as a political outsider who manages to get rid of what he calls “caste” and who knows how to channel the fatigue of a large part of the electorate.
Massa is the current economy minister of a country in crisis: during his term, inflation reached 140% year-on-year and poverty exceeded 40%. He is also a defender of Peronism’s core principles: social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty. Milei defends the reduction of public spending to a minimum, the dollarization of the economy and denies, among other things, state terrorism in the last dictatorship and the climate crisis. The Ultra has distanced itself from its most controversial proposals such as the free carrying of weapons, the sale of organs, the end of social welfare or public education, as the last presidential debate showed this Sunday.
Looking ahead to November 19th, the country is divided. Massa managed to surpass the results of the primaries, receiving 37% of support in the first round in October, while Milei remained at 30%; The polls show a small advantage for Milei this Sunday, although this difference is within statistical error. The international community also divided support between one side and the other. While the former presidents, politicians and Nobel laureates from Latin America and Europe who signed this manifesto expressed their support for Massa, other leadership groups from the conservative environment showed such as former presidents Mariano Rajoy of Spain, Sebastián Piñera of Chile, Felipe Calderón from Mexico, Iván Duque from Colombia and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa asked to vote for Milei.