2023-11-18 02:43:50
Javier Milei closed his campaign for the presidential runoff in Argentina in the province of Córdoba and not in the capital like his adversary Sergio Massa. It’s not by chance. It is the second most populated province in the country, where three million voters vote, and is considered key in these elections.
Córdoba, which had a packed house for the libertarian candidate’s last mass event, is the region most opposed to Kirchnerism, historically. It was there where former president Mauricio Macri consolidated his 2015 victory and was better off in 2019 despite losing re-election.
Javier Milei came out as the most voted in the first round there, with 33.54% of the votes, followed by the outgoing governor Juan Schiaretti (29%), a Peronist not affiliated with the ruling coalition. The traditional opposition candidate, Patricia Bullrich, had 22.62% and Sergio Massa only 13.42%, his worst performance on a regional scale.
It is an advantageous starting point for Milei, now allied with Bullrich and Macri. But he does not have everything won: the Radical Civic Union, with good electoral influence in Córdoba, did not want to opt for any candidate and described La Libertad Avanza’s proposal as “demagogic extremism.” It is also unclear where the more than 600,000 votes that Schiaretti got will go.
In all these years, despite being a Peronist, the outgoing governor has remained at odds with Cristina Kirchner. These days he has criticized the “economic disaster that the Kirchnerist government of Sergio Massa has been causing” but he has not publicly supported Milei, nor will he do so.
The official candidate Massa also visited Córdoba this week, particularly the city Río Cuarto. “Many times Córdoba felt that the central power turned its back on it, for whatever part I had, my apologies to the people of Córdoba,” the Minister of Economy dared.
Another territory that will also be key to the result will be the province of Mendoza, the fourth in electoral importance with 1.5 million voters, which has also been elusive to Kirchnerism. In the general elections on October 22, Massa got 24% compared to Milei’s 42%. In the middle were 26% of Bullrich and 4% of Schiaretti. Most of those thirty points will go to the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidate.
These are two provinces, therefore, where the ruling party seeks to increase its numbers, but, especially, to encourage abstention. The campaigns that speak of an unbalanced Milei, of a “jump into the void” have been concentrated there. The libertarian candidate in fact responded this Thursday in his closing campaign that there is nothing to fear: “What leap into the void are you talking about if we are going to hell itself?”
In Santa Fe, the third province with the most voters (2.8 million), Milei also looks unbeatable, although Massa obtained a significant increase in the first round compared to the mandatory primaries in August, placing him in second place. There the result will be “fought.”
Where the ruling party looks strongest is in the Province of Buenos Aires, the most populated with 13 million voters. Kirchnerism governs there, with Axel Kicillof who won the election and who is expected to be key to transferring officials to a national management of Massa, if he wins the presidency. Furthermore, in October 84 of the municipalities in that territory elected mayors from the ruling party compared to the 47 who opted for candidates from Together for Change. Javier Milei’s platform did not obtain any.
It was a positive result for Massa, especially in the suburban areas (the outskirts of the capital), with local leaders who have committed themselves to the territorial campaign street by street. It is no coincidence that Massa closed his campaign in the city of Buenos Aires, a key point in the province with which he aspires to compensate the stages of Córdoba and Mendoza.
In the federal capital, which has 2.5 million voters, Together for Change with Jorge Macri at the helm (cousin of the former president) has primacy. In October he achieved such a big difference that the official candidate for governor resigned from the runoff. An advantage that was also seen in favor of Bullrich in the first presidential round, while Milei came third.
Mayor Macri will not speak in favor of Milei for this Sunday, but he will provide party structures that serve as electoral witnesses in favor of the libertarian standard-bearer, both in his territory and in other municipalities in the province.
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