Nearly 36 million Argentines are called to the polls, in a context of economic crisis and chronic inflation of 143% over one year. The first official results are expected during the night from Sunday to Monday.
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This is one of the most indecisive elections in Argentina since the return of democracy forty years ago. Argentinians began voting on Sunday, November 19, for the second round of the presidential election between Sergio Massa and Javier Milei. The polling stations opened on Sunday at 8 a.m., i.e. at noon Paris time, noted AFP in the center of Buenos Aires in particular. They must close ten hours later for nearly 36 million Argentines called to the polls. The first official results are expected from 9 p.m., i.e. 1 a.m. Monday November 20 Paris time.
Chronic three-digit inflation (143% over one year), poverty at 40% of the population despite a dense social safety net, pathological debt and a currency that is spiraling out of control paint the landscape for the second round. Rents are out of reach for many and mothers are resorting to barter, as after the traumatic economic crisis of 2001.
On one side, Sergio Massa, 51, accomplished politician, Minister of the Economy for 16 months of a Peronist executive (center left) from which he distanced himself. And which promises a “government of national unity” and a gradual economic recovery, preserving the welfare state, central to Argentine culture. Facing him, Javier Milei, 53, economist “anarcho-capitalist” as he describes himself, a TV polemicist who entered politics two years ago. Clearance against “parasitic caste”, he is resolved to “tronçonner” L'”Enemy State” and dollarize the economy. For him, climate change is a “cycle” and not the responsibility of man.