Argentina elects far-right firebrand Javier Milei as president
Argentines headed to the polls on Sunday in a closely contested presidential runoff, with two starkly different visions for the country's future on offer and an electorate simmering with anger at triple-digit inflation and rising poverty.
The election pitted centrist Peronist Economy Minister Sergio Massa, 51, at the helm for the country's worst economic crisis in two decades, against radical far-right outsider Javier Milei, 53 - the slight favorite in pre-vote opinion polls.
With 86% of precincts reporting, Milei was ahead by 56% to 44%. Massa conceded the election at just after 8:00 p.m. local time.
With many Argentines unconvinced by either candidate, some have characterized the election as a choice of the "lesser evil": fear of Milei's painful economic medicine of shock devaluation and sharp cuts, or anger at Massa over the economic crisis.
In the first-round vote on October 22nd, Massa won 36.7% of the votes compared to 30% for Milei - who since won public backing from the third-place candidate, right-wing former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich (23.8%).
He faces a divided Congress, with no one coalition holding an absolute majority in either house - but with Peronists holding pluralities in each.
Popular discontent in the economically troubled nation of 46 million had depressed turnout somewhat in the two previous rounds - but in today's runoff approached the 81% registered in 2019.
Debt and democracy
Outgoing President Alberto Fernández, 64, opted out of running for re-election amid rock-bottom approval ratings and annual inflation of over 140% - partly the result of a foreign debt "Macrisis" inherited from his right-wing predecessor, Mauricio Macri - who backed Milei.
This was the 10th presidential election held in Argentina since 1983, following a 7-year fascist dictatorship that presided over 30,000 "disappeared" and a foreign debt debacle that burdens to the country to this day.
Milei and his running mate, Victoria Villarruel, 48, have openly praised the last dictatorship.
At: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-readies-vote-likely-presidential-election-thriller-2023-11-19/
Argentine presidential candidates Sergio Massa and Javier Milei vote in today's presidential runoff in Argentina.
Representing the center-left governing coalition, the pragmatic Massa fell short against a neo-fascist Milei whose runoff campaign was bolstered by an endorsement from the third-place candidate, Patricia Bullrich.
