More than 35.4 million Argentines – of them some 110,000 in Spain – are marching this Sunday through the polls called to, in addition to electing president and vice president, renew 130 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 of the Senate, and appoint 43 Argentine representatives to the Mercosur Parliament (Parlasur, legislative body of the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). An election day marked by a deep economic crisis and an end to the campaign that has resulted in cross complaints between the candidates and scandalous scenes of opaque financing of politics.
Javier Milei, the candidate of La Libertad Avanza, has emerged as the favorite (today he turns 53), with the majority of polls on his side, indicating him as the most voted. Although former Argentine president Mauricio Macri foresees “a runoff scenario”, that is, a second electoral round, predicting that none of the presidential candidates will reach the necessary percentages to be so. He said it after exercising his right to vote, and before a group of media that were waiting for him at the exit of the electoral college. The leader of the opposition coalition Together for Change (center-right) indicated that he sees “a runoff scenario” before the media, although he did not mention the political forces that would compete in it.
The five main candidates aspiring to the position are the aforementioned leader of La Libertad Avanza (far-right), Javier Milei, who received the most votes in the August primaries and is the top favorite; the current Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, who represents the ruling coalition Unión por la Patria (Peronism); the candidate for Together for Change (center-right), Patricia Bullrich; the acting governor of Córdoba, Juan Schiaretti, who represents Hacemos Por Nuestro País (dissident Peronism), and the candidate of the Left and Workers Front, Myriam Bregman.
These five candidates have managed to exceed the minimum of 1.5% required in the primary elections of August 13, although three are the favorites: Milei, Masssa and Bullrich.
After Macri, the second to go to the polls has been Milei, who has said he is “in a position to create the best Government in history”, after casting his vote at the National Technological University of Buenos Aires. Milei came to vote amid chants of “happy birthday” from her followers, given that this Sunday the candidate turns 53 years old.
Massa, who had planned to vote at 11:00 a.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT), reportedly had a domestic problem that forced him to delay his arrival at the voting center, and then he had to wait inside the precinct until other neighbors voted. so he ended up voting almost two hours later. “For Argentines there are four or five minutes that, at the entrance to the dark room, represent the definition of the future of the next four years of Argentina, and obviously today is a very important day,” the minister highlighted to the media after vote in the town of Tigre.
“I am happy for what we have done and have offered to the Argentine people,” said center-right candidate Patricia Bullrich after voting at 1:43 p.m. (4:43 p.m. GMT) in Buenos Aires. And she added that “the objective of whoever represents such an important force is not only to be there, but to win the election.” “I tell the Argentine people that we always, always, always bring peace of mind,” said the Together for Change candidate, who has avoided speaking out with an explicit partisan message.
All the focus in these elections is on Milei, who has turned the Argentine political board upside down with his victory in the primaries. The ultra-liberal candidate and supporter of the dollarization of the Argentine currency has managed to capitalize on much of the discontent of Argentine society after years of economic crisis that have brought poverty levels to 40.1%.
A 53-year-old graduate in Economics, Milei made his first foray into politics two years ago. He obtained 17% of the votes in the legislative elections for the City of Buenos Aires. Since then, he has served as a national deputy. In addition to the dollarization of the economy, Milei also advocates the elimination of the Central Bank, which he has proposed to “dynamite” or “burn,” and has advocated for the free sale of organs for transplants, something prohibited by law. , the deregulation of the arms market, the repeal of the abortion law through a popular consultation or the breaking of diplomatic relations with “communist countries” such as China and Brazil.
Patricia Bullrich, 67, is part of the Together for Change coalition and has been a strong opponent of Peronism and the governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner in recent years. Between 2015 and 2019 she was Minister of Security in the Government of Mauricio Macri and previously, Minister of Labor in the Government of Fernando de la Rúa, when she promoted a 13% reduction in pensions.
Bullrich has reached the presidential election after overcoming primaries in his party in which he beat Rodríguez Larreta, mayor of Buenos Aires. The candidate has promised a “firm hand” against crime, drug trafficking and corruption and has recently proposed “recording conversations” between prisoners and their lawyers, which has been criticized by the Government for being allegedly unconstitutional.
Sergio Massa, 51 years old and a lawyer by profession, has been Minister of Economy since July 2022 and the poor situation of the Argentine economy, with runaway inflation, weighs on him. In recent weeks, his campaign has been hit by a series of scandals linked to Peronism in the province of Buenos Aires, such as the appearance of photos of an official riding a yacht through Marbella with a model, exhibiting an unjustifiable level of spending for his public salary.
The candidate attributes the economic problems to the debt contracted with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the Macri Government, as well as to the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, although he has also recognized errors in the current administration of Alberto Fernández and has promised to change several of the current ministers if he reaches the Casa Rosada. He has also announced a “government of national unity” if he becomes president.
