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Argentina’s economy minister Sergio Massa has won the first round of presidential elections, in a victory for the centre-left populist coalition over libertarian challenger Javier Milei.
With 96 per cent of votes counted, Massa, who hails from the country’s Peronist movement, won 36.5 per cent, against 30 per cent for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party (LLA). Patricia Bullrich, the candidate for the mainstream centre-right opposition bloc Juntos por el Cambio (JxC), received 23.9 per cent.
Massa and Milei will advance to a run-off on November 19. The elimination of JxC, which had been seen as the ideological middle ground between LLA and the Peronists and was the favourite of most investors and business leaders, sets the stage for a polarising second-round campaign.
In his victory speech, Massa reiterated a pledge to form a unity government with different political parties, vowing that the divide between Peronists and non-Peronists that has dominated Argentine politics for the past 40 years would end with his administration. “I’m someone who believes in dialogue and consensus,” he said.
138%Argentina’s year on year inflation figure in September
The result on Sunday night overturned most projections, which had shown a consistent lead for Milei after he won a narrow victory in a primary in August, in which Massa came third.
Milei recognised the election results and called on “everyone who wants a change” in Argentina to defeat Peronism. “I’m ready to have a clean slate . . . beyond all our differences we have to understand that we have a criminal enemy against us.”
A veteran political figure from the right of the Peronist movement, Massa has overseen a worsening economic climate under outgoing president Alberto Fernández over the past 14 months. Inflation hit 138 per cent year on year in September while Argentina’s foreign currency reserves have been drained to support the plunging peso.
Milei ran a furious campaign against mismanagement and corruption by Argentina’s political establishment, while promising to slash spending by up to 15 per cent of gross domestic product and dollarise the economy to stamp out inflation.
No party will have a majority in Argentina’s congress. With half of the 257 lower house seats being contested, the Peronists will hold 103, with JxC at 94 and LLA at 39. In the senate, where a third of the 72 seats were up for grabs, the Peronists will have 31 seats, JxC 24 and LLA six.
The Peronists also triumphed in the closely contested gubernatorial election in Buenos Aires province, where more than a third of Argentines live. Incumbent Axel Kicillof, an ally of former Peronist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, prevailed with 44.9 per cent of the vote.
Milei’s insurgent campaign has been fuelled by widespread frustration in Argentina after several decades of economic woes. But he has also courted controversy with support for radical ideas, including legalising the sale of human organs and referring to Pope Francis, a former Buenos Aires archbishop, as “evil’s representative on earth”.
While markets had been unnerved by Milei’s plans to overhaul the economy, the Peronists’ strong performance may hit Argentina’s already deeply distressed government bonds, said Martín Rapetti, executive director of economics consultancy Equilibria.
“Massa promises much better governability than Milei but the market consensus has doubts about whether Massa really wants to or is able to do the reforms that Argentina needs,” he said.
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