A twist in Argentina in view of the presidential elections on 22 October, and above all the primaries of 13 August, which will determine the official candidates. The novelty is that after the rise of the right-wing extremist Javier Milei, now the left too has its radical outsider: his name is Juan Grabois, he is 40 years old, and he is the favorite profile of "hard and pure" Peronism, the one who it contrasts with the choice of party leader Cristina Kirchner, who has staked all her chips on the current Economy Minister Sergio Massa, however considered too centrist by the ranks. Grabois, in appearance, has the classic profile of radical chic, having been born into a wealthy family in Buenos Aires. However, he was immediately interested in the cause of the least, supporting workers' movements and organizing a popular economy network to distribute food to the needy.
Party with the lights off, when Massa's candidacy seemed to have made everyone agree, Grabois is instead rising again in the polls for the August 13 primary, to the point of even jeopardizing what seemed a foregone conclusion, namely that the minister of 'Economy, which in recent weeks has been doing everything possible to stem yet another financial crisis and to renegotiate its debt with the IMF, should present itself unhindered at the meeting on 22 October as a centre-left candidate. The representative of the extremist wing of Peronism has in fact risen to 10%, surpassing even one of the centre-right candidates, the governor of Buenos Aires Horacio Larreta, who holds 7,5%. While Massa travels on a modest 18%, if compared to the 25,7% of the leader of the liberals Patricia Bullrich, and also to the 22% of the sovereignist Javier Milei, who however is deflating a bit: a few weeks ago he was even given advantage.
Grabois's recipe is very different from Massa's, it is inspired by the original ideals of Peronism, and is in fact splitting the party's base in two: if on the one hand the Economy Minister is almost considered a right-wing Peronist, a proponent of austerity and the fight against crime, the young man from good Buenos Aires has social justice as his primary objective. For him, the payment of the debt with the International Monetary Fund should not be a priority to the point of sacrificing social policies, and demonstrating that sometimes opposites attract, he agrees with Milei on abandoning the peso as a currency, even if unlike its rival, it does not want to "dollarize" the Argentine economy but rather relaunch the idea – already largely rejected by the market – of adopting a common currency of exchange with Brazil, which is the country's main trading partner.
Grabois is becoming a loose cannon and his consent annoys the leaders of the party not a little, starting with the former president Cristina Kirchner, who in truth would have preferred a candidate more to the left, like maybe the faithful Wado de Pedro or Axel Kicillof, only to then fall back on Massa for a purely electoral assessment, given that the axis of these Argentine elections has moved a lot towards the right. In fact, the situation that has arisen demonstrates that the almost unprecedented economic crisis, with inflation that could reach 120% by the end of the year, will probably lead Argentines to make extreme choices. On the right, even if the Trumpian Milei fails to make it, that of the favorite Bullrich is still a profile more to the right than her political father Mauricio Macri, and also the rise of Grabois to the left shows that even in that political area the candidacy of a moderate as Mass is not digested by much of the base.
Grabois represents the generation of the famous crisis of 2001, that of playpen, and it is precisely on that emotional and generational factor that many cards are being played: "They told us that we are the destroyed generation, but in reality we are the only generation that can still make sense of this century", he said recently , claiming to be the only true heir of the teachings of Juan Domingo Peron.
