It should have been a fight to the last vote, so the polls said the day before, but instead Javier Milei, 53 years old, ultra-liberal, won quite clearly, winning almost 56% of the votes and therefore defeating in the run-off of the Argentine presidential elections the Economy Minister of the outgoing government, the moderate Peronist Sergio Massa, who with 98% of the ballots counted closed just above 44%. . This is the fourth defeat for Peronism since Argentina returned to being a democracy about 40 years ago. The last one was in 2015, when the liberal Mauricio Macri, former governor of Buenos Aires and president of Boca Juniors, won. However, this is the first time ever that an outsider like Milei, far right, "anarcho-capitalist" to the point of proposing the closure of the Central Bank, thedollarization of the economy and the privatization of all state-owned companies.
With Milei, Argentina chooses the path of international isolation
The Argentine voters decided to trust him, therefore choosing the path of international isolation: while Massa had been the tightrope walker capable of negotiating with the Monetary Fund and containing inflation which also skyrocketed over 140% on an annual basis , Milei wants a total break with all international commitments, starting with Mercosur, the free trade area of South America. Precisely for this reason, neighboring Brazil, the area's leading economy, had followed the Argentine electoral round with particular attention, to the point that Lula had supported Massa and, last night, wished the new government well, but avoided nominating Milei. There will be no shortage of tensions between the two countries starting in the next few days, just as an isolationist attitude towards the European Union and other global powers is to be expected, starting with China which in recent years had become an increasingly more strategic than Buenos Aires, to the point of recently including Argentina in the Brics, under pressure from Brazil.
It will also be interesting to see the reaction of the markets, who had decidedly more faith in Massa, so much so that immediately after Milei's victory in the August primaries the exchange rate with the dollar skyrocketed to an all-time record: over 350 pesos for the official one, almost 1.000 pesos for the parallel one, the so-called blue . A situation now out of control, which practically stopped the real economy in the weeks preceding the vote and made access to exchange almost impossible for the poorest groups, who, as many now know, represent 40% of the population. Even the Buenos Aires stock exchange, after having reached the peak of the year at 815.000 points a month ago, retreated in the following weeks, until it closed at 645.000 points in the session on the Friday before the vote.
Milei will not be able to count on a majority in Parliament
Milei will therefore be president of Argentina for the next four years, even if he will not be able to count on a majority in Parliament. In fact, his party, A Liberdade Avança, won in the first round only 38 deputies out of 257 total, and 7 senators out of 72. On the other hand, he will be able to obtain the support of other right-wing forces, starting with former president Macri's party, now led by Patricia Bullrich, but full governability remains in doubt. Especially if we consider that Milei's recipes are quite extravagant, if not brutal: in addition to those already mentioned, the new president, who in the past also insulted Pope Francis and gave the president of Brazil (Argentina's first trading partner) Lula of the "communist and corrupt", wants to close the ministries of Culture, Women and Science and Technology, also wants to totally privatize healthcare and schools and abolish subsidies, which in Argentina help the less well-off to use public transport practically free and cover a large part of the costs of electricity and gas utilities.
