A feverish counting of votes began on Sunday evening in Argentina, during a tense and indecisive presidential election like rarely in 40 years of democracy, between the centrist Sergio Massa and the ultraliberal and “anti-system” Javier Milei.
It is ultimately Javier Milei who will be the next president of Argentina after winning the second round of the presidential election on Sunday. His rival conceded the results of the vote early Sunday evening, recognizing his defeat.
Javier Milei, 53, “is the president that the majority of Argentines elected for the next four years,” said Massa, who came first in the first round on October 22. Shortly before the announcement of the partial official results, he indicated, in front of his supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires, that he had called Javier Milei to “congratulate him and wish him good luck”.
Polling stations closed at 6 p.m., with a turnout of 76%, and the first official results are expected around 9 p.m., but a clear picture could be slow to emerge in the event of a tiny difference.
According to the official partial results, Javier Milei was declared the winner with 55.95% of the votes against 44.04% for Sergio Massa.
Long-term care or shock therapy for a never-ending economic crisis? For the third largest economy in Latin America, 36 million Argentines were called upon to decide between projects for the future that could not be more antagonistic.
On one side, Sergio Massa, 51, accomplished politician, Minister of the Economy for 16 months of a Peronist executive (center left) from which he has gradually distanced himself. And who promised a “government of national unity”, and a gradual economic recovery, preserving the welfare state, crucial in Argentine culture.
Facing him, Javier Milei, 53, an “anarcho-capitalist” economist as he describes himself, a TV polemicist who entered politics two years ago. Defendant against the “parasitic caste”, determined to “cut apart” the “enemy state” and to dollarize the economy. For him, climate change is a “cycle”, not the responsibility of man.
Between ? Argentinians going “from crisis to crisis, and on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” summarizes Ana Iparraguirre, political scientist at the GBAO Strategies firm.
Exhausted by prices that climb from month to month, even from week to week, when wages fall, including the minimum wage at 146,000 pesos (400 US dollars).
Rents out of reach for many, and mothers resorting to barter, as after the traumatic “Gran crisis” of 2001.
68% of young people aged 18 to 29 would emigrate if they could, according to a study by the University of Buenos Aires earlier this year.
“You have to bet!” »
“I believe that neither of the two candidates pleases the Argentines. But we must vote for the least worst,” resigned Maria Paz Ventura, a 26-year-old doctor. A lot of people are afraid of (Milei), but the way we are, a change wouldn’t hurt us. You have to bet! “. »
Very moved, Maria Carballo, a 40-year-old architect, said that when she submitted her ballot she “felt like crying, for fear that Milei would win. His ideas scare me. I have confidence in Massa.”
The undecided, around 10% according to estimates, held the key to deciding between Massa (37% in the first round) and Milei (30%).
Milei attracted a “bronca” (anger) vote, but his rhetoric, his desire to dry up public spending in a country where 51% of Argentines receive social assistance, or his project to “deregulate the firearms market” , were also scared.
Also, the “anti-system” candidate lowered his voice between the two rounds. Fewer appearances, less clear-cut, and a message: “Vote without fear, because fear paralyzes and benefits the status quo.”
“We’re going to take hits”
“What is at stake now is less support than rejection” of the other, believes Gabriel Vommaro, political scientist at San Martin University.
“It is not love that unites us, but fear,” says political scientist Belen Amadeo, quoting the famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
The only certainty: whoever wins, there will be “rapid economic decisions that will hurt,” says Ana Iparraguirre.
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.
“Whatever happens, we don’t see a bright future. We expect to take blows,” grimaced Mariano Delfino, 36, after voting “without conviction.”
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 and [Jair] Bolsonaro” who promoted such messages, or “did not accept the results,” Massa warned.
Milei, welcomed at his polling station on Sunday with cries of “Freedom, freedom!” » assured that his camp was “well, very calm, despite the fear campaign” against him. Massa, for his part, called on Argentines to vote “with reflection, serenity, calm”, and with “hope”.