In the end, anger triumphed over fear: Javier Milei won the runoff elections for president in Argentina. After counting 85 percent of the ballot papers, the right-wing libertarian candidate received almost 56 percent of the valid votes on Sunday. His opponent, the left-wing Peronist Sergio Massa, lost with 44 percent.
Even in advance, the elections were considered to be the most important in the country’s recent history. And now, after Milei’s victory on Sunday, the question is what will happen next for South America’s second-largest economy and third-largest democracy.
Javier Milei describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”. For a long time, the economist was only known to most Argentines as a guest on talk shows. He loudly advocated for free access to firearms or praised the benefits of organ trafficking. He described politicians as “subhumans”, he insulted the Pope, himself an Argentine, as a “lousy leftist” and he sees the state as a “criminal organization”.
Two years ago, Milei entered parliament for a small party. He attracted a lot of attention with high-profile campaigns such as the monthly raffle of his MP salary. During the presidential election campaign, Milei promised to reduce what he saw as the sprawling state to a minimum. In addition, the local currency Peso is to be completely replaced by the US dollar in order to get the now three-digit inflation under control.
Given the catastrophic economic situation, Milei received a lot of support for his suggestions. At the same time, however, there was increasingly bitter resistance.
Argentina is one of the most politically progressive countries in the entire region. Just 40 years have passed since the end of the last military dictatorship. Thousands of opponents of the regime were kidnapped, tortured, murdered and buried in anonymous mass graves. In recent decades, the country has put a lot of energy into addressing these crimes. Teams of experts are searching for bodies, perpetrators were brought to justice and sentenced to long prison terms. This has brought Argentina much praise internationally and now some fear that this progress could be wiped out: Milei himself has repeatedly questioned the number of victims of the dictatorship and his future vice president, Victoria Villaruel, is considered the most prominent voice of those in the country See kidnappings, torture and murders by the junta as a legitimate response by the dictatorship to terror by left-wing guerrillas. Human rights associations therefore warned against a victory for Milei.
At the same time, parts of the population also questioned what consequences the right-wing libertarian candidate’s radical reform plans could have for the country’s already severely ailing economy. One of Milei’s central promises is the abolition of the national currency, the peso, and the introduction of the US dollar. But exactly how this should take place is completely unclear.
The fact that Milei ultimately won the elections despite all these fears is partly because he toned down his radical rhetoric in the weeks before the runoff and was able to secure the support of conservative forces that were defeated in the first round of voting.
For the Left Peronists, the election result is a bitter defeat
In the end, the decisive factor for the victory was probably the anger of many people in the country towards the left-wing Peronist government: its candidate Sergio Massa is Argentina’s incumbent economics minister. Many people blame him for the catastrophic economic situation in the country. There have also been a number of scandals involving corruption and nepotism in recent years and months.
For the Left Peronists, the election result is a bitter defeat. Sergio Massa spoke on Sunday evening of a difficult election campaign and admitted defeat even before the official results were announced. It was not what he had hoped and expected: “The Argentinians have chosen a different path.” Even as he spoke, cries of joy could be heard in the streets of Buenos Aires, as did others venting their anger at the defeat.
The big question now is what happens next in the South American country. The expectations of the new government are huge, as are the tasks that lie ahead of it: the Argentine state is heavily indebted, large parts of the population are impoverished and society is deeply divided. Milei will face bitter resistance from the opposition in parliament, but also at local government level. Argentina also has traditionally extremely strong unions and well-organized social associations that will try to oppose privatization plans and austerity measures with demonstrations, strikes or roadblocks.
On Sunday evening, Javier Milei’s supporters cheered on the streets of Buenos Aires. The new government will take office on December 10th. It remains to be seen how long the celebratory mood will last.