The candidate of Unión por la Patria, Sergio Massa, has been the most voted in the first round of the Argentine presidential elections last Sunday, but he will need 3.5 million more votes to win the second round on November 19. If he gains the support of far-left and center-Peronist voters, he would get 2.5 million more votes.
The centrist Juan Schiaretti, governor of the province of Córdoba and candidate for Hacemos por Nuestro País, has obtained 1,784,315 votes (6.78 percent), so he could be one of the most courted candidates due to his position as a federal Peronist not Kirchnerist.
However, Schiaretti published a message on social networks this Monday focused on the management of his province, more specifically on wastewater management, a clear message of distancing. “In Tanti we inaugurated the sewage liquid treatment plant, which integrates the western sanitation basin of Lake San Roque,” he highlighted.
In any case, it seems difficult for We Do for Our Country, which includes center-left parties, to choose to support a candidate other than Massa.
More clear has been the candidate of the Left Front and Workers-Unity, Myriam Bregman, who has asked for time to adopt an official position. ““In the coming days we are going to take a position on the runoff.”he declared this Monday on a radio station, although he is clear that “Sergio Massa is not the same as Milei.”
“It was a very complex campaign with the appearance of this far-right phenomenon of Javier Milei. I think we had a good performance in the debates. The vote against the ghost train that is Javier Milei prevailed,” Bregman stated in a radio program Urban Play.
“We have the peace of mind of having confronted Javier Milei since he appeared,” he highlighted, while reiterating his opposition to the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the ruling party does accept. “What is certain is that we are going to be against the adjustment no matter who applies it. Massa remains tied to the IMF (…). “I will never change my vision,” she stressed.
Between both options they would add 2.5 million votes. “The other million votes are more participation, which could be obtained, and a radical, Larretista voter, who does not want Milei’s antidemocratic paradigm to govern Argentina,” noted the director of the Latin American Strategic Center for Geopolitics (CELAG), the analyst Alfredo Serrano Mancilla, in statements to the newspaper ‘Página 12’.
Milei’s options
Milei has the most complicated arithmetic and he has already openly sought the votes of Patricia Bullrich, from Together for Change, in a “blatant and unconcealed” way, according to Serrano.
This same Monday, Milei appealed to “all sectors that want to get rid of Kirchnerism.” “All those who want to take our side to get rid of Kirchnerism are welcome. There was a lot of dirty campaign, like never before in Argentina. We got here. Now it’s time to shuffle and give again to start a new stage and fight “Milei stated in statements to the Radio Continental station.
Precisely to weave alliances with the classic right that Together for Change embodies, Milei has highlighted Jorge Macri’s victory in the city of Buenos Airesalthough a possible second round is still pending, and former minister Rogelio Frigerio, elected governor of Entre Ríos.
“We are the ones who can lay the coffin for Kirchnerism and that is why I embrace those who can help us end this dark history for the country,” he added. For Milei, Massa has already reached her electoral “ceiling.”
Analysts highlight Milei’s rapid adherence to the most classic conservative theses. “In the first speech after the results were known, Javier Milei made his own, verbatim, the axes of the PRO campaign”, a Republican Proposal led by former president Mauricio Macri, according to Serrano. “We have measured and we believe that there are about three quarters of Patricia Bullrich’s voter who is a possible voter in support of Javier Milei,” said Serrano.
However, he has warned that if the results of the primaries and the first round are analyzed “there has already been a small transfer.” “When you look at the raw data, Milei has increased 700,000 votes between PASO and today. And Bullrich has dropped 400,000 votes. We suspect that part of those votes that fell are already some that went to Milei in this first round,” he noted.
Milei “has a certain room for growth, but I want to clarify that when a leader is defeated, has little credibility in ordering its voters who to vote for“.”The electorate is very autonomous after a defeat,” he noted.