2023-11-19 23:29:56
Javier Milei greets his supporters, alongside his sister Karina Milei, in Buenos Aires, November 19, 2023. MARIO DE FINA / AP
Far-right candidate Javier Milei largely won the second round of the presidential election in Argentina on Sunday, November 19, at the end of a tense and indecisive campaign unlike anything seen in forty years of democracy. His rival, the centrist Sergio Massa, admitted his defeat. Mr. Milei will assume the presidency on December 10, succeeding Peronist (center-left) President Alberto Fernandez.
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Javier Milei gathered 55.95% of the votes once morest 44.05% for Sergio Massa, according to initial partial results communicated by the general secretariat of the presidency following the counting of more than 86% of the ballots. The extent of the gap is surprising: in recent weeks, pollsters had given Milei a slight advantage, but many analysts predicted a result that would play out “up to the vote”.
“Today begins the end of decadence” and the “reconstruction of Argentina”, exulted Javier Milei in front of several thousand of his supporters, at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires.
Javier Milei, 53 years old, “is the president that the majority of Argentines have elected for the next four years”, had recognized even before the announcement of the official results Mr. Massa, the current Minister of the Economy, who came first in the first round on October 22. He told supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires that he had called Javier Milei to “congratulate him and wish him good luck”.
The undecided, around 10% according to estimates, held the key to deciding between Massa, who had gathered 37% of the votes in the first round, and Milei (30%). Polling stations closed at 6 p.m., with a turnout of 76%. Some 36 million Argentines were asked to decide between two completely opposed future projects.
On one side, Sergio Massa, 51, minister of the economy for sixteen months of a Peronist executive (center left) from which he has gradually distanced himself. This experienced politician had promised a “government of national unity” and a gradual economic recovery, preserving the welfare state, crucial in Argentine culture.
A climate polemicist
Facing him, Javier Milei, 53, a far-right economist, describes himself as “anarcho-capitalist”. This television polemicist emerged in politics only two years ago. Determined to rid the power of a supposed « caste parasite », he shows himself determined to “cut off” l’“enemy state” and dollarize the economy. The new president-elect is also an outspoken climate skeptic, for whom climate change is a « cycle »not the responsibility of man.
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After announcing his victory, he proclaimed to his supporters: “The impoverishing model of caste is over. Today, we adopt the model of freedom, to become a world power once more. » At his campaign headquarters, thousands of people sang and chanted two of the candidate’s favorite slogans: «The caste is afraid» (The caste is afraid!) and «Long live freedom, damn it! » (Long live freedom, damn it!).
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Brazilian President Lula wished on “good luck and success” to the new Argentine government, without directly naming Javier Milei. “Argentina is a great country that deserves all our respect. Brazil will always be available to work with our Argentinian brothers”wrote Lula.
Latin America’s third largest economy is going through a difficult period, with chronic inflation, now at three figures (143% over one year), four out of ten Argentines below the poverty line, worrying debt and a currency that is falling. Argentines are exhausted by prices that climb from month to month, even from week to week, when wages fall. The minimum wage is 146,000 pesos ($400). Rents are out of reach for many, and many mothers resort to barter, as following the Gran Crisis so traumatic in 2001. According to a study by the University of Buenos Aires published at the beginning of the year, 68% of young people aged 18 to 29 would emigrate if they might.
The country is under pressure from the budgetary rebalancing objectives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to which Argentina is painfully repaying a colossal loan of 44 billion dollars granted in 2018.
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Insinuations of fraud
Javier Milei magnetized a vote « anger » (anger), but his rhetoric, his desire to dry up public spending in a country where 51% of Argentines receive social assistance or his project of “deregulate the firearms market” were also frightened. Also the candidate ” anti-system “ he had lowered his voice between the two turns. Fewer appearances, less clear-cut, and a message: “Vote without fear, because fear paralyzes and benefits the status quo. »
Adding to the ambient nervousness, the Milei camp has distilled insinuations of fraud in recent weeks, without a complaint being filed. “Beware of very bad examples of [Donald] Trump et de [Jair] Bolsonaro » who promoted such messages, or “did not accept the results”warned Sergio Massa.
Mr. Milei, welcomed at his polling station on Sunday to cries of “Freedom, freedom! “, had assured that his camp was “good, very calm, despite the fear campaign” once morest him. Mr. Massa, for his part, called on Argentines to vote “in reflection, serenity, calm”and with ” hope “. They made another choice.
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