Javier Milei He went from brandishing the chainsaw with which he symbolizes the drastic cut in public spending to handshaking. He stopped defending controversial proposals and publicly uttering insults. And fearful that the presidency of Argentina slipped out of his hands, he joined the “caste” of politicians that he claims to despise.
The candidate of Freedom Advances He softened his tone following the first electoral round, which he arrived as a favorite in the polls and in which he finally fell behind the ruling party Sergio Massa, who was the one who gathered the most votes.
LOOK: Massa or Milei?: Peruvian migrants between anxiety and fear of choice
Looking ahead to the November 19 runoff, he has hidden the fangs of the roaring lion that represents him on his campaign posters.
The change began to take shape with the pact he sealed with former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), a conservative who has given him the support of a sector of the opposition in exchange for moderating his explosive temperament and controversial ideology. The objective is to expand the range of votes that will allow Milei to remove Peronism from power in the most competitive elections that can be remembered in years.
But doubts arise about whether the economist, who entered politics just two years ago proposing the drastic reduction of the State and the free carrying of weapons, is capable of neutralizing the campaign of fear against him that Massa is encouraging, in his turn. once Minister of Economy and long-time political leader who is supported by the powerful official apparatus.
“Milei is a new politician, lacking professionalism, who at times seems like he wants to be right more than winning the elections… It is seen that it is difficult for him to have social sensitivity to relate and that affects him,” Lucas Romero told The Associated Press. , from Synopsis Consultores.
LOOK: Could the gasoline crisis have any effect on the Argentine second round of elections?
Meanwhile, Massa, despite being questioned for the poor economic results – with a painful annual inflation of almost 140% and a poverty rate of 40.1% – is, in the eyes of analysts, a professional politician and a candidate with poise. before a Milei who he calls dangerous and jumps into the void.
The libertarian tries to counteract that bad image. Smiling, he walked the streets of a town near Buenos Aires days ago while waving an Argentine flag, a national flag that did not previously appear in his proselytizing events dominated by the yellow ones of his party with the image of a lion.
The far-right put aside the insults and hugged and kissed people. A few days before, he rang the doorbells of the houses in a capital neighborhood to find out about his problems and take “selfies.”
It is an electoral strategy very different from the aggressive manner, shouting and jumping on stages that he deployed for the first electoral round on October 22, when he emerged as the favorite in a context of great anger in society with an incapable political leadership. to solve the problems.
The result was not as expected and the far-right was surpassed by Massa, from Unión por la Patria, who obtained more than 36% of the votes. Milei touched 30% and Patricia Bullrich, Macri’s ally in the center-right coalition Together for Change, reached almost 24%. Hence, the alliance with the former president has become key.
The victory of the ruling party was attributed in part to the great mobilization of Peronism in the populous province of Buenos Aires warning that the libertarian was going to cut rights and social aid.
Milei says that the time of aggression has ended and he is willing to “shuffle and give again” to defeat Kirchnerism, the center-left sector within Peronism with which he identifies the Minister of Economy and from which the latter tries to separate himself. .
At the request of Macri, the ultra-liberal candidate agreed to support Bullrich, thus putting aside his itches against the caste of politicians who, according to what he has denounced, led Argentina to decline in recent decades.
As a symbol of truce in a campaign full of aggression, Milei published on her social networks an image of a lion hugging a duck. Bullrich is commonly known as “Pato,” a common nickname for Patricia.
“He has the support of a young electorate and must moderate some ways to incorporate the electorate of Together for Change, made up of adult segments who are the most refractory to supporting a guy who goes with the chainsaw screaming and with his hair. “Everyone stopped,” said Romero.
The ultraliberal must attract the largest number of anti-Peronist votes from that coalition, which is virtually fractured. But the pact with Macri and Bullrich has raised blisters among centrist sectors of said force that called to vote for Massa or blank.
The large number of undecided voters and the potential blank vote of those who reject the two contenders are key in this runoff.
Romero pointed out that for the first round, Massa was effective by warning that “Milei will increase your bus and train fares” to get votes among the Peronist sectors with limited economic resources. Now “he says that it is a risk for democracy, an institutional risk,” a message that is directed at the center or center-left voters of the opposition coalition.
Milei has reduced the interviews in which his bellicose character can come out when he is displeased and thorny topics such as his rejection of abortion, legalized in 2020.
In one of them he denied that, if he comes to power, he will implement the free sale of organs and the free carrying of weapons, as he has publicly defended. “These are things that were misinterpreted, dirty.”
In another he was again tense and in a bad mood. It was when he asked his interviewer to silence “the murmur” of the cameramen and other operators on the television set. “I see that they don’t stop talking… If I make a mistake, they will destroy me publicly and no one will say that behind it there was a murmur that was killing me.”
Despite these setbacks, Milei tries to remain calm. “Massa’s campaign is smoke,” said the economist with a monotone tone in a video, and then stated that if he becomes president “public education will continue,” but without combative unionists who paralyze classes. Also “public health, but without VIP vaccination”, in reference to the scandal of those close to power who had quick access to vaccines against the new coronavirus.
Milei also presents himself as the candidate close to “those who get up every day at 6 in the morning to earn their bread with the sweat of their brow; to those who suffer robberies, murders” and she accuses Massa of being the “establishment candidate”.
“He has the power of the State, he is a partner of economic power, he has unlimited resources and a huge ambition for power… He is going to defame us… He is going to try to generate weeds among our ranks,” he says of the Peronist.
The campaign in search of moderation also reaches libertarians close to Milei who now remain silent after having called to break relations with the Vatican or defend the possibility that men can renounce their paternity since there are women who “need” them. condoms.
Diana Mondino, who would be the head of the Foreign Ministry in a possible liberal government and is one of the few close to Milei authorized to speak, came out to clarify that “the relationship with the Vatican is very important.” For his part, the libertarian has not insulted the pope again, whom he has called a demon incarnated on earth who defends the socialist ideology.
In an attempt to set a limit, Bullrich has clarified that he does not subscribe to the economist’s controversial ideas such as Argentina’s trade break with Brazil and China.
The conditions imposed by that opposition sector generated the disagreement of several elected legislators of La Libertad Avanza. To stop the diaspora of supporters, Milei maintained that “none of the points” of his economic program to stop inflation are being negotiated, such as the closure of the Central Bank and the dollarization of the economy.
According to analysts, the television debate on November 12 between the two contenders will be a litmus test for the ultraliberal, since he is considered the inexperienced one before a Massa accustomed to such disputes.
