2023-10-25 18:42:22
LOOK: Elections in Argentina: “Massa’s victory is a huge surprise, there has been a fear factor towards Milei”
Milei, from Libertad Avanza, obtained second place in the presidential elections and will compete for the presidency on November 19 with the ruling party Sergio Massa, representative of the Union for the Homeland coalition and current Minister of Economy, who surprised by coming first despite that Argentina has an annual inflation of 140%. In third place was Patricia Bullrich, candidate of the conservative coalition Together for Change.
Despite the expectations generated around Milei, the libertarian obtained the same percentage of votes as in the primaries, which shows a stagnation that is not good news for him with a view to the second presidential round. His strategy now seems to be to seek conciliation.
Since Sunday, the self-proclaimed candidate of the ‘anti-caste’ struggle began hunting for the votes of other political forces, especially Together for Change. If on the same Sunday he had made a call to join forces to confront Kirchnerism, in recent days Milei also proposed adding Patricia Bullrich herself to his eventual government.
Javier Milei, candidate of the La Libertad Avanza party. (Photo: AFP)
“How am I not going to incorporate her, if she has been successful in combating insecurity,” said Milei regarding the former Minister of Security of the government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
In his eagerness to gain support, the libertarian also offered positions to the left. “We have the Ministry of Human Capital and in some aspects of the areas that enter there the people who know the most regarding that issue are from the left (…) If you are going to provide a solution, what do I care what you think regarding the theory Of value? I don’t care three radishes,” he said in an interview with the La Nación + channel.
The support of Bullrich voters (23.8%) would be vital for Milei (29.9%) to surpass Massa (36.6%), who, according to analysts, had support with a growth trend partly attributed to the fear campaign launched once morest Milei.
Strategy change
The question now is whether Milei will be able to attract new voters to his discourse of Kirchnerism versus anti-Kirchnerism, especially if one considers the vehemence with which he attacked until a few days ago those who he is currently seeking as allies.
FREEDOM vs. Kirchnerism
If we do not want to lose the country in the hands of this government of criminals, it is essential that all of us who want change work together.
We have thirty days to make History.
VLLC…!!! pic.twitter.com/Q274NxtjFQ
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) October 23, 2023
In his opinion column in the newspaper “La Nación”, the Argentine journalist Martín Rodríguez Yebra points out that since Milei won the primaries “he confused the advantage he gained from the parties of the system with the very destruction of all the intrinsic logic of politics (…) He made a collection of enemies with his public appearances and with the free thinking exercises of his references in the most diverse matters.”
“He viscerally attacked the leaders of Together for Change, with the only exception of Mauricio Macri. He wanted to demolish Patricia Bullrich by portraying her as a ‘bomb thrower’. She treated the radicals as ‘garbage’. As if there were no tomorrow where she would have to ask them to support her with the vote,” she adds.
Patricia Bullrich came in third place. (Photo: AFP)
/ JUAN MABROMATA
The Argentine political scientist Santiago Rodríguez Rey affirms that Milei’s problem is that now “he needs a part of the caste that he previously denounced” and that, in addition, there is a certain disorder in this search for allies.
“There are crossed messages, there are too many people around them talking, saying similar and different things, offering positions. These types of conversations are not done in public, offering positions left and right is not the way and denotes this internal chaos. Maybe it was more prudent to wait a little more than 48 hours to start doing it,” he tells El Comercio.
Will he get those votes?
While Milei seeks votes, the parties themselves try to establish their position. Rodríguez Rey points out that an internal division is coming in Together for Change, a coalition that, in addition, obtained less support on Sunday than in the August primaries.
“Patricia Bullrich’s vote is 23%. A group will surely support Milei, but I don’t think she will be the majority,” says the expert.
He adds that although there may be greater appetite for the Together for Change vote, we must not miss the fact that there are 10 more points between the non-official Peronist Juan Schiaretti and Miriam Bregman of the Left Front and Workers-Unity, the other two candidates who competed on Sunday.
“Even though Milei’s approach now is Kirchnerism versus anti-Kirchnerism, there are many alliance options. And I think that the position that Sergio Massa is putting forward is broader. In Libertad Avanza you can even see messages that call for the left and Milei has no option with them. When making deals, talks have to be more serious than a tweet, a meme, a person saying something in the air, which is what is happening now,” he points out.
Sergio Massa, the Minister of Economy of the Peronist government, surprised everyone by being the most voted in the first electoral round. (Photo: AFP).
In this scenario, he adds that Milei should let the effect of victory that accompanies Massa today pass before launching into offering positions and wanting to secure alliances. “The only reason why we seek to speed up the times is to have the partners on our own side as soon as possible, the issue is that this does not allow the groups with which one wants to associate to be reorganized or organized. These types of conversations that you want to have in a hurry should happen next week,” he concludes.
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