Insults and violent messages: one of the most aggressive presidential campaigns in Argentina comes to an end

LOOK: Debate in Argentina: “Massa was more professional and prepared than Milei in this format”

The statements against the Central Bank were crucial in the furious messages with which the libertarian candidate Javier Milei, who this Sunday the 19th will compete for the presidency with the official candidate Sergio Massa, sought to defend his economic policy. He also resorted to using a chainsaw as a symbol to illustrate his plans to implement a drastic cut in public spending.

During most of the campaign Milei, candidate of La Libertad Avanza, deployed an electoral strategy of aggressive manners, shouts and vehement jumps at his rallies, which, according to experts, resonated well with millions of Argentines angry about the situation in the country and an annual inflation of 138%.

Alexandra Morales, Argentine political scientist specialized in political communication, points out that, in part, Milei has transcended due to her lack of limits when referring to others and for having managed to connect with a great anger that exists in society. “Having started her political career in this way has allowed her to say a lot of issues that are unthinkable for other candidates or politicians,” she tells El Comercio.

However, the libertarian had to moderate that style after the first round on October 22, when, despite all the polls showing him as a favorite, he finished in second place, almost 7 points behind Massa.

“Milei lowered his tone because he had to go look for the voters of those candidates whom he dedicated himself to insulting and mistreating throughout the campaign. He has made a total change in strategy, he says that the attacks are over, the insults are over, which forces him to change the narrative,” notes Morales.

For his part, Massa, candidate of Unión por la Patria, focused on attacking Milei and, along those lines, has decided to focus his efforts for the second round on reminding people of the most controversial positions of the liberal candidate, who accuses the ruling party to maintain a campaign of fear against them.

Milei in Massa’s videos

The latest spots from Massa’s campaign highlight some of Milei’s most controversial ideas in interviews, as well as moments where he gets upset on television.

One of the most shocking videos seeks to demonstrate the harmful effects of their slogans on children. To this end, several minors are shown watching fragments of Milei’s interviews in which he proposes “that adoptions be a free market” and compares the State “to a pedophile in kindergarten, to children chained and bathed in Vaseline.” .

In the audiovisual piece, Milei is heard using expressions such as “piece of shit…, you are of no use, daughter of a…, your mother’s con…” while referring to the Union for the Union deputy. Homeland Gabriela Estevez.

In another moment, a child looks stunned as he listens to a journalist asking the libertarian candidate if he is in favor of people arming themselves. “Yes, why not. What would be the problem?”, Milei responds.

A fragment of an interview is also shown in which Milei refers to Pope Francis as “that idiot who is in Rome.”

Morales points out that since the August primaries, Unión por la Patria carried out a negative and aggressive campaign in which “we are constantly seeing spots, videos and advertisements that aim to expose Milei’s proposals in the first stage.” “These proposals have been used in a negative campaign, in a campaign of fear by the ruling party, which seeks to install and exaggerate the danger of these proposals,” he explains.

He adds that, facing the second round, the ruling party “no longer only focuses on Milei’s proposals, but on the person, that is, they begin to attack the candidate. The recklessness is shown, that he is a very visceral person. His contradictions between one interview and another, his insults to the Pope and presidents of other countries stand out.

After the dissemination of these spots, the liberal candidate accused Massa of a “dirty campaign.” “Sergio Massa, at this point in such a dirty campaign, your intellectual dishonesty does not surprise me. You should also give the reason that prompted me to insult like that. Oh sure, that would mean reviewing the political garbage,” he wrote on the social network X.

“The dirtiest campaign in several decades”

For Morales it is a fact that this has been a “quite aggressive” campaign, largely because Milei has managed to consolidate and gain media attention based on his outbursts and the way in which he refers to other opponents, especially until before the second lap.

“He has crossed some boundaries in personalizing the insults. She called Patricia Bullrich, who was one of the candidates for president, a ‘montonera who puts bombs’. This is something that we have seen throughout this last period. Although after the general elections she began to moderate a little because she had to appear more presidential, she still had certain outbursts,” she says.

Hugo Alconada Mon, journalist for the Argentine newspaper “La Nación”, considered in an event organized by that medium that this electoral campaign in Argentina is “the dirtiest since the return to democracy”, since “hidden cameras, leaks of audios, unpleasant messages on WhatsApp and Telegram, and accusations that go far beyond what we had seen on other occasions.”

The journalist also stated that in this campaign there was an illegal intelligence operation to set up and then spread possible campaign crimes.

Morales adds that, based on the fact that this is an election in which the narrative of choosing the lesser evil is being used, “negative campaigns have been used strategically to be able to contrast with the other and to be able to highlight the weaknesses or what I want it to generate fear or rejection in the opposing candidate.”