Two styles and two visions of the economy will clash on November 19 to take the lead in Argentina on December 10. Economy Minister Sergio Massa faced with record inflation of 138% and ultraliberal “anti-system” economist Javier Milei are qualified for the second round of the presidential election, according to partial results Sunday of the first round.
Sergio Massa, 51, candidate from the government bloc (center-left) came in first with 35.9% of the votes. He is ahead of Javier Milei, 53, with 30.5%, who confirms his breakthrough since his emergence on the political scene two years ago, according to figures from the Electoral Authority, with 76% of the votes counted. The candidate of the opposition alliance (center-right) Patricia Bullrich, a former Minister of Security and protégé of former liberal President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), is left behind, with 23.6% of the votes .
Voters between uncertainty and concern
Argentines voted in a climate of uncertainty and concern, as rarely since the return of democracy forty years ago, against a backdrop of chronic debt and inflation now among the highest in the world. Around the polling stations, the words “fed up”, “anxiety”, “no magic formula”, recurred in the mouths of voters, reflecting an atmosphere shared between desire for change and fear of a “jump in the void “.
“We are prepared to make the best government in history,” said Milei, a polemicist who emerged from TV sets in 2021, when voting. He has since followed a common thread of “clearance” against the “parasitic caste”, according to him, the Peronists (center-left) and liberals who have alternated in power for twenty years. His anger, his biting expressions, his electric style spoke to an audience that was often young and without much perspective. But his proposals, such as “cutting up” the State and the public service, “dollarizing” the economy have also sowed doubt. At his campaign headquarters on Sunday evening, however, the disappointment was evident, as the polls placed him in the lead before the vote.
For Massa, “the worst of the crisis” is over
Facing him Sergio Massa, an DNA centrist who had already run for president in 2015, against his current Peronist allies, took care during the campaign to distance himself from the executive. He also tried to convince that “the worst of the crisis” is over, thanks to an upcoming export boom and the end of a historic drought in 2022-23 which deprived Argentina of $20 billion in revenue.
Above all, in recent months, he has increased his budgetary generosity: reduction in the number of taxable persons, subsidies, VAT exemptions, to cushion the shock of inflation. “Electoral irresponsibility,” shouted his opponents, while Argentina is struggling to repay a loan of 44 billion to the IMF. For now, his HQ on Sunday evening was all hugs and songs.