Javier Milei and Sergio Massa head for presidential election run-off

BUENOS AIRES (AP):

Economy Minister Sergio Massa produced a big surprise by finishing first in the opening round of Argentina’s presidential election, reflecting voters’ wariness about handing the presidency to his chief rival, a right-wing populist who upended national politics and pledged to drastically diminish the state.

Massa’s victory over Javier Milei, a chainsaw-wielding economist and freshman lawmaker, came despite the fact that, on his watch, inflation has surged into triple digits, eating away at the purchasing power of salaries and boosting poverty. Still, he wasn’t punished in Sunday’s voting.

With nearly all ballots counted early Monday, Massa had 36.7 per cent of the vote and Milei had 30 per cent, meaning the two will go to a November 19 run-off. Most pre-election polls, which have been notoriously unreliable, had given Milei a slight lead over Massa. Former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, of the main centre-right opposition coalition, got 23.8 per cent to finish third in the field of five candidates.

Massa has been a leading figure in the centre-left administration in power since 2019. He successfully focused messaging on the way Milei’s proposals to slash the size of the state — from halving the number of government ministries to deep spending cuts — would affect everyday life for Argentines, said Mariel Fornoni of the political consulting firm Management & Fit.

That “had a significant impact and evidently instilled more fear than anything else”, Fornoni said.

Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel, whose latest survey had been one of the few putting Massa ahead, said one key to the result was a lower abstention rate than in the primary elections held in August. Around 78 per cent of the electorate voted Sunday, some eight points higher than in the primaries that Milei won.

Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who admires former US President Donald Trump, built a groundswell of support while calling for elimination of the Central Bank, replacement of the local currency with the US dollar, and a purge of the corrupt establishment that he called the “political caste”.

His radical proposals and fiery, profanity-laden rhetoric caused some Argentines to vote for Massa, even if less than enthusiastically. Cristian Ariel Jacobsen, a 38-year-old photographer, said he voted for Massa to prevent Milei’s “project that puts democracy at risk”.

A sense of apprehension was evident on the streets of Argentina in the days before the election. People with any disposable income snapped up goods in anticipation of a possible currency devaluation, recalling that the government devalued the peso by nearly 20 per cent the day after the August primaries. Argentines also bought dollars and removed hard-currency deposits from banks as the peso accelerated its already steady depreciation.

Massa’s campaign this year follows another, eight years ago, when he finished a disappointing third place and was knocked out of the running. This time, he will have his shot in the run-off. That contest will determine whether Argentina will continue with a centre-left administration or veer sharply to the right.