Argentine Minister of Economy Sergio Massa and anti-establishment outsider Javier Milei are to face off in a runoff presidential poll, a battle between two wildly different versions of the country, election results showed on Sunday.
Latin America’s third-largest economy is creaking under triple-digit inflation after decades of recurrent fiscal crises marked by debt, financial mismanagement and a volatile currency.
The charismatic Massa, representing the ruling center-left Peronist coalition, overcame expectations to come first with 36.6 percent of votes, with more than 97 percent of ballots counted, despite overseeing record annual inflation and poverty levels.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Our country is in a complicated situation ... nevertheless you believed we were the best tool to build a new step in Argentina’s history,” Massa told his cheering supporters in Buenos Aires.
If elected, Massa promised to lead a government of national unity, a first for Argentina, and launched an appeal to “all those who share our democratic values.”
“I am not going to fail you,” he said.
Photo: AFP
The libertarian Milei, leader of the La Libertad Avanza party, who brought a powered-up chainsaw to rallies vowing to slash public spending and dollarize the economy, scored 30 percent of the vote.
The rock-singing, TikTok-savvy outsider came from nowhere to put up a fierce challenge to traditional political parties, touching a nerve with Argentines fed-up with economic shambles.
“Today is a historic day because two-thirds voted for change. All of us who want change have to work together. We can win, take back our country, prevent our kids from leaving the country,” Milei said.
The two will compete in a Nov. 19 runoff election, with the winner to take office on Dec.10.
In his victory speech Massa sought to present himself as the calmer, steadier hand, as opposed to Milei, who surged to prominence with his angry diatribes against the “thieving and useless political class” and dire state of the country’s economy.
“I am convinced that this is not a shit country. It is a great country and we are going to give it the place that it deserves,” Massa said.
During the campaign, Massa took pains to highlight what his opposition’s plans to cut hefty electricity and public transport subsidies would mean for people’s pockets.
To woo voters, he went on a pre-election spending spree, slashing income tax for much of the population in a move analysts said would only make the country’s fragile financial situation worse.
Milei, a libertarian economist, blindsided pollsters when he surged to the front of the election race, winning an August primary with 30 percent of votes.
He kept the same amount of votes in the first-round election.
While some are keen for a radical shift, “a lot of Argentines have a lot to lose from the dismantling of the social welfare state,” which supports millions, said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Argentina Project at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
“If Milei is at rallies wielding a chainsaw, well, at the other end of that chainsaw is people’s quality of life,” Gedan said.
With more than 8 million votes up for grabs that went to third-placed former Argentine minister of security Patricia Bullrich and two other candidates, he said Massa faces a stiff battle against the upstart Milei.
“I think a simple reading of this first-round result is that many more Argentines want to throw Peronists out of power than the number who would like to see them remain,” Gedan said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS