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.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS