2023-11-19 18:13:00
A man votes in the second round of the presidential elections today, at a polling station, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Sergio Massa and Javier Milei are the two candidates in the Argentine runoff and at the end of the day one of them will be chosen as the future president of the country.
Photo: EFE – Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
Argentina votes this Sunday in the second round to elect its next president, between the Minister of Economy, the Peronist Sergio Massa, and the libertarian and far-right Javier Milei, in a close presidential race to which they arrive burdened by a serious economic crisis and in a climate of extreme tension.
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With annualized inflation of 143% and poverty that affects 40% of the population, Argentina is going through its worst economic situation in the last two decades.
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Given that the electoral campaign has developed between feelings of rage towards the traditional politics that Massa represents and fear of Milei’s disruptive proposals, many today see a choice between continuity and the aforementioned “jump into the void.”
The polls predict a technical tie between the two candidates, with a significant sector that will vote without conviction or directly blank.
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Below we tell you the minute by minute of this key day.
Cristina Fernández refrains from “giving advice”
The vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández, declined this Sunday the opportunity that the press gave her to give “some advice” to the country’s next president, who will emerge from the runoff between the ruling party Sergio Massa and the opposition Javier Milei.
“No one can claim the power to give advice,” said the former president (2007-2015) after casting her vote in Río Gallegos (province of Santa Cruz, south), where she is registered and where she said she will await the results of the second round. electoral.
Fernández, who did not linger for too long in front of the journalists who were waiting for her, only said that “the fact that this is “the second runoff of democracy is very strong,” alluding to the only precedent that exists, in which the center-right Mauricio Macri beat the Peronist Daniel Scioli in 2015.
45% of the census have voted
45% of the electoral roll had voted at two in the afternoon, Argentine time, according to the Electoral Chamber, the body that monitors and guarantees the vote.
The Argentine opposition candidate, Javier Milei, cast his vote this Sunday at 12:40 pm local time.
Milei, leader of La Libertad Avanza (far-right), was received by a crowd of supporters, who surrounded the car in which he traveled to the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Almagro, where he cast his vote.
The official candidate, Sergio Massa, cast his vote this Sunday at 12:11 pm local time in the runoff.
Massa was received by a crowd of supporters, which slightly delayed his entry into the voting center he went to in Tigre (Buenos Aires province).
I voted accompanied by my family, with a lot of love for Argentina and with the pride that comes from strengthening democracy.
I ask you to go vote with hope, today it is decided which country we are going to travel to in the next 4 years.
We have the enormous opportunity to choose and build towards… pic.twitter.com/0zDN8USUSu
— Sergio Massa (@SergioMassa) November 19, 2023
Larreta denies that he is going to be Minister of Economy
The mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, denied this Sunday, during election day in Argentina, that he is going to become “(Sergio) Massa’s Minister of Economy”, in response to a version that emerged on social networks.
The one who was a pre-candidate for the Argentine Presidency for Together for Change (center-right), and who lost in the primaries to Patricia Bullrich, is one of the members of the coalition that decided to remain neutral in the runoff while the former Minister of Security and the Former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), a leader of the party, expressed their support for the opponent Javier Milei.
“I am not going to be Massa’s Minister of Economy. I have always been and will be from Together for Change,” Rodríguez Larreta expressed before the media at the exit of the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where he cast his vote.
Message from Alberto Fernández
“It is one more day where Argentines vote and choose our future. I wish it to be a day of happiness for Argentines,” outgoing President Alberto Fernández told the media as soon as he voted.
The president went to vote at around 9:45 in the morning at the facilities of the Catholic University, located in the Puerto Madero neighborhood, in the south of Buenos Aires. He took refuge in the electoral ban, in force since Friday morning, not to answer questions and not to say “anything else.”
He only expressed his wish that “everything passes without doubt and calmly,” in reference to the comments made in recent days since the formation of Milei, La Libertad Avanza (far-right), about possible fraud, without being able to present evidence before Justice. electoral.
Fernández asked to “respect and take great care of democracy” and left amid some greetings and shy applause from some followers who came to his voting headquarters.
Massa’s vice-presidential formula asks to respect results
The candidate for the Vice Presidency of Argentina of Unión por la Patria (Peronism), Agustín Rossi, asked this Sunday to “accept what the citizens decide” at the polls, during the ballot to choose who will be the next head of state of the South American country since 10th of December.
“When the people decide, we must take it with calmness and serenity and accept what the citizens decide,” said the Chief of Staff of the Government of Alberto Fernández in a statement to the media after casting his vote in Rosario (province of Santa Fe, where his hometown is located, Vera).
Rossi, number two in the formula led by the current Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, noted that it is “a good day for Argentine democracy” and hoped that “there will be no inconveniences” in the development of election day.
Former Argentine president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), who supports Javier Milei, asked voters this Sunday not to resign themselves to having hope in an election that he defined as “a turning point” and in which the ruling party Sergio competes. Massa and the opposition Milei to define the next president.
“This election marks a turning point for Argentina. That is why it is so important that no one resigns, that no one escapes the possibility of having hope and voting,” said Macri after doing the same at a school in the capital’s Palermo neighborhood, a few minutes before 10 in the morning.
Macri supports Milei in this runoff, with whom he said he spoke on Saturday night and said that “he was very good, he was very calm.”
Voting centers open
At 8 am local time (6 am Colombian time) the voting centers in Argentina opened.
Some 35.8 million people are registered to vote in the runoff.
Support for Massa from Brazil
Minutes before the opening of the polls, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, wife of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, used this Sunday a vignette with the character Mafalda to express her support for Sergio Massa in the second round of the elections in Argentina, in which the Peronist candidate faces the far-right Javir Milei.
“That Massa hugs you,” Janja wrote on his profile on the , a comic book character born from the imagination of the Brazilian Mauricio de Souza.
That colloquial expression in Portuguese can be translated into Spanish as “how wonderful that hug” and clearly reflects the preference of the Brazilian first lady in the Argentine elections.
Lula, until now, has been cautious, although his close relationship with the current Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, and with Massa himself make his position very clear.
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