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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Nov 3 (IPS) – For many Argentine voters, the choice in the November 19 presidential election is between the lesser of two evils: Sergio Massa, economy minister of a once-in-a-generation government has economic collapse with inflation as high as 140 percent, or Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian who admires Donald Trump, wants to close the Central Bank and publicly brandishes a chainsaw as a symbol of his willingness to destroy the state. Many will regret that it ever got to this point.
A strange outsider
Milei is a postmodern media celebrity and her performance style fits perfectly with social media. He is quick to anger, reacts violently and insults profusely. He is unapologetically sexist and mocks identity politics.
Milei is beating the drum for ‘anarcho-capitalism’, an ultra-individualist ideology in which the market has absolute priority: earlier this year he described the sale of human organs as ‘just another market’.
To expand his appeal beyond this extreme economic niche, he forged an alliance with the culturally conservative right. His running mate, Victoria Villarruel, represents the opposition to abortion – legalized after decades of campaigning by civil society in 2020 – and to policies on sexual diversity and gender equality, along with the reappraisal of the murderous military dictatorship that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983 reigned.
In the run-up to the August primaries, the two mainstream coalitions – the centre-left incumbent Union for the Homeland (UP) and the centre-right opposition Together for Change (JxC) – showed a notable lack of leadership and indulged in internal squabbles that showed little empathy for people’s daily struggles. All they had to offer in the face of widespread concerns about inflation and uncertainty were the candidacies of the current Minister of Economy and a former Minister of Security. They made it easy for Milei to hold them accountable for decades of corruption, ineffectiveness and failure.
In Milei’s argument, the hard-working, productive majority is bled dry through taxation to maintain the privileges of a parasitic and corrupt political ‘caste’. His proposal is deceptively simple: shrink the state to a minimum in order to destroy the caste that lives on it, paving the way for individual progress.
Milei gained traction among young voters, especially young men, through TikTok. He found fertile ground among a generation that no longer expects to be better off than their parents. While many of his followers admit that his ideas may be a little crazy, they seem willing to risk embracing the unknown on the grounds that the truly insane plan would be to kill those who have long held power. to retain their power and expect things to turn out differently. Milei has capitalized on the despair, hopelessness and built-up anger that so many rightly feel.
Surprise after surprise
The first surprise came on August 13, when Milei won the most votes of all candidates in the primaries.
Milei did not enter politics until 2021, when the 17 percent votes he collected in the capital Buenos Aires sent him and two other libertarians to the National Congress. In the 2023 primaries, he went much further, winning 30 percent of the vote. He came ahead of JxC, whose two candidates received a combined 28 percent, and UP, the current incarnation of the Peronist Party, which received 27 percent. The largest share of the UP votes, 21 percent, went to Massa. That Peronism, once the dominant force, came in third place was a historic first.
The second surprise came on October 22. After the primaries, all that was talked about was Milei winning the presidency. He trumpeted his intention to win the first round outright. Against these expectations, his second place seems an underachievement. But the fact that a candidate who wasn’t on the radar before the primaries made it to the runoff shows how quickly the political landscape can change.
In the October elections, Milei took almost exactly the share he had received in the primaries. Massa finished above him with almost 37 percent, replacing JxC, which lost four points due to its second place in the primaries.
The fact that the Minister of Economy was able to distance himself from the government he is part of – a government often described as the worst in forty years – to come first was seen as a remarkable victory, even if his share was about the lowest that Peronism has ever had. received.
One explanation for Massa’s improved performance was turnout, which rose eight points to almost 78 percent – still low for a country with compulsory voting, but enough to make a difference. Much of the increase can be attributed to the political apparatus that mobilized voters on election day, aided by the ministerial candidate who used as many levers as possible to increase his chances. This meant, among other things, that a lot of direct money ended up in the pockets of voters, including through tax breaks in favor of specific groups of employees and consumers.
An unpalatable decision
There is still a lot of uncertainty ahead. Economic failure is Milei’s best propaganda, so much will depend on how the economy behaves in the coming weeks. Milei and the destruction he represents cannot be written off.
Neither those currently in power nor those in the mainstream opposition acknowledge the obvious: Milei is their fault. They have held power for most of the past forty years without effectively addressing any of the issues that matter most to the people.
Many voters now feel they face an unpalatable choice between a corrupt and failing government and a dangerous disruptor. They fear that if they choose to keep Milei out, their votes could be misinterpreted as a show of active support for a continuity that they also reject. There’s more than one election at stake here. If Milei is kept at bay, the political dynamics leading to the current economic dysfunction will still need to be addressed – otherwise the far-right threat to democracy will not end with Milei.
Ines M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service