Flirting with Bullrich and the left: Milei’s turn to seek the presidency of Argentina

Since he won the primaries Argentine in August, the libertarian Javier Milei He showed his most defiant side and defended his controversial proposals without restrictions. His confidence and his loud attacks on his rivals have increased even more in recent weeks, when he has positioned himself as a favorite in the polls and even considered his possible victory in the first round. Therefore, the sweetened version that he has presented since the elections on Sunday, the 22nd, represents a radical turn in a figure that few associate with moderation.

TO LOOK: Elections in Argentina: “Massa’s victory is a big surprise, there was a fear factor regarding Milei”

Milei, from Libertad Avanza, came second in the presidential elections and will compete for the presidency on November 19th with the governing party Sergio Massa, representative of the Union for the Fatherland coalition and current Minister of Economy, who surprised by coming in first place despite this Argentina has annual inflation of 140%. In third place was Patricia Bullrich, candidate for the conservative coalition Together for Change.

Despite the expectations generated around Milei, the libertarian obtained the same percentage of votes as in the primaries, which shows a stagnation that is not good news for him in the face of the second presidential round. His strategy now appears to be to seek conciliation.

Since Sunday, the self-supporting candidate of the “anti-caste” struggle started hunting votes from other political forces, especially Together for Change. If on the same Sunday he had made an appeal to join forces to confront Kirchnerism, in recent days Milei also proposed adding Patricia Bullrich herself to his eventual government.

Javier Milei, candidate for the La Libertad Avanza party. (Photo: AFP)

“How can I not incorporate her, if she has been successful in combating insecurity?“Milei said about the former Minister of Security in the government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

In his eagerness to gain support, the libertarian also offered positions to the left. “We have the Ministry of Human Capital and in some aspects of the areas that are included there, the people who understand the most about this subject are on the left (…) If you are going to provide a solution, what do I care what you think about the theory of value? I do not care”, he said in an interview with the channel La Nación+.

The support of Bullrich voters (23.8%) would be vital for Milei (29.9%) to surpass Massa (36.6%), who, according to analysts, had growing support attributed in part to the campaign of fear thrown against Milei.

The question now is whether Milei He will be able to attract new voters to his discourse of Kirchnerism versus anti-Kirchnerism, especially if we consider the vehemence with which he attacked until a few days ago those he now seeks as allies.

FREEDOM vs. Kirchnerism

If we do not want to lose the country in the hands of this government of criminals, it is essential that all of us who want change work together.

We have thirty days to make History.

VLC…!!! pic.twitter.com/Q274NxtjFQ

-Javier Milei (@JMilei) October 23, 2023

In his opinion column in the newspaper “La Nación”, Argentine journalist Martín Rodríguez Yebra highlights that since Milei won the primaries “He confused the advantage he took from the system’s parties with the destruction of the entire intrinsic logic of politics (…) He made a collection of enemies with his public appearances and the free-thinking exercises of his references on the most diverse subjects.”.

“He viscerally attacked the leaders of Juntos pela Change, with the sole exception of Mauricio Macri. He wanted to demolish Patricia Bullrich by portraying her as a ‘tonera bomb launcher’. He tried to kill the radicals ‘trash’. As if there was no tomorrow where he would have to ask them to support him in the vote.“, To add.

Patricia Bullrich came in third place. (Photo: AFP) (JUAN MABROMATA/)

Argentine political scientist Santiago Rodríguez Rey states that Milei’s problem is that now “He needs a part of the caste he denounced earlier” and that, in addition, there is a certain disorder in this search for allies.

“There are crossed messages, there are a lot of people around you talking, saying similar and different things, offering positions. This type of conversation is not done in public, offering positions left and right is not the way and denotes this internal chaos. Perhaps it would be more prudent to wait a little more than 48 hours to start doing this.,” he tells El Comercio.

While Milei is looking for votes, the parties themselves are trying to establish their position. Rodríguez Rey highlights that an internal division is emerging within Together for Change, a coalition that, in addition, received less support on Sunday than in the August primaries.

“Patricia Bullrich’s vote is 23%. Certainly a group will support Milei, but I don’t think it will be the majority”, says the expert.

He adds that while there may be greater appetite for the Together for Change vote, we shouldn’t miss the fact that there are a further 10 points between unofficial Peronist Juan Schiaretti and Miriam Bregman of the Left Front and Workers’ Unity, the other two candidates who competed on Sunday.

“Although Milei’s approach is now Kirchnerism versus anti-Kirchnerism, there are many alliance options. And I think that the position that Sergio Massa presents is broader. In Libertad Avanza you can even see messages that call for the left and Milei has no option with them. When doing business, the conversation has to be more serious than a tweet, a meme, a person saying something on air, which is what is happening now.“, he points out.

Sergio Massa, Economy Minister of the Peronist government, surprised everyone by being the most voted in the first electoral round. (Photo: AFP).

In this scenario, he adds that Milei should let the effect of victory that currently accompanies Massa pass before launching into offering positions and wanting to secure alliances. “The only reason we seek to speed up times is to have partners on our side as quickly as possible, the issue is that this does not allow the groups we intend to join to be reorganized or ordered. This kind of conversation you want to have in a hurry should happen next week“, ends.

Source: Elcomercio