Argentina has survived unscathed a presidential debate that heated up for weeks and fizzled out just as the candidates took the stage this Sunday night in Santiago del Estero, a thousand kilometers north of Buenos Aires. The ultra Javier Milei, who spent the last few days brandishing a chainsaw at his rallies, chose to comb his hair, put on his glasses and stick to his written speech. He was the candidate to hit: not only because he was the most voted in the primaries on August 13, but because the previous debate was marked by speculation about whether he would last on the stand without the outbursts that led him to the polls. .
Milei smiled disdainfully at the criticism, hesitated when explaining his educational plan, and was encouraged for the first time to deny the military dictatorship. “The State forces committed excesses, but the ERP and Montoneros terrorists killed, planted bombs and committed crimes against humanity,” she said, facing criticism from the leftist candidate, Myriam Bregman. It was the most tense moment of a debate that was initially entangled in the economic discussion and deflated immediately afterwards because, to discuss the rest of the agenda, the candidates had already exhausted their five requests for responses in that segment.
The debate ended without a clear winner. The Peronist candidate, Sergio Massa, took more blows than the rest, but they were not as harsh as those received by Patricia Bullrich, from the traditional right, who broke down when trying to explain her economic plan. Amidst the crossfire, the anti-Kirchnerist Peronist Juan Schiaretti called for federalism. There are three weeks until the presidential elections. The candidates will meet again next Sunday for the final debate in the capital.
Below are some of the highlights of the debate.
“Patricia, your financial proposal was not clear to me”
Patricia Bullrich, former Security Minister of Mauricio Macri, is third in the polls behind Milei and Massa. The debate was her opportunity to come back, but the traditional right-wing candidate got tangled up trying to explain her economic proposals. “We are all crying out to end the anguish we are experiencing,” she said when presenting her economic plan. “With me, this is over. “I am going to wipe inflation off the map,” she announced. She didn’t delve deeper. The two minutes that she had allotted for the topic were filled with a vague description of Argentina’s greatest evil. “When there is no inflation, you buy without surprises. You can buy a house. Without inflation, you don’t buy it,” she was confused. During the cross-questions, Milei and Massa agreed to pressure her to explain herself. “Patricia, your economic proposal was not clear to me,” the Peronist criticized her in direct questions. Milei accused her of “escaping” and answering “sarasa”, a very Argentine way of saying that she was improvising.
The Minister of Economy apologizes for the crisis
Bullrich came out badly on the economic issue, but most of the blows were taken by the Peronist Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy of the current Government. Massa proposed everything from sending tax evaders to jail to a digital currency so that Argentines with money abroad can return it to the country without consequences. None of them dulled the criticism he received as the visible face of the Government he leads together with Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, which has inflation at 124% annually and poverty suffocating more than a third of the population. “I am clear that the mistakes of this Government have hurt people and I apologize,” Massa said at the beginning of the debate. Later he distanced himself from the current administration completely: “Now a new Government is coming, mine.”
Milei relativizes the military dictatorship
The public was able to choose one of the axes of the debate and put human rights on the table. The focus was once again on Milei by her candidate for vice president, Victoria Villarruel, daughter and granddaughter of soldiers, who came to describe the dictatorship as “an internal armed conflict, a low intensity war.” Milei, who as a television talk show host had criticized the atrocities of the dictatorship and as a candidate the economic policy of the military, stood behind Villarruel this Sunday. “We value the vision of Memory, Truth and Justice. Let’s start with the truth: there were not 30,000 missing people, there are 8,753″, she said, denying the number of missing people defended by organizations such as Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. “In the seventies there was a war,” stated Milei, contrary to what was determined by the historic Trial of the Juntas, which in 1985 led to the conviction of the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and those mainly responsible for the dictatorship. “We are absolutely against a one-eyed vision of history,” he said, later adding that “state forces committed excesses” and leftist guerrilla groups “crimes against humanity.”
The most important Argentine in history
In recent weeks, Milei has found a fierce enemy in the Catholic Church. The ultra spent years insulting Pope Francis as a “filthy lefty,” “imbecile,” “communist,” and “representative of the Evil One.” The priests of the popular neighborhoods united in their rejection of him, and a month ago the mobilization in support of the Pope began. The direct crossing between Massa and Milei was the focus of this discussion. When it was his turn to question the ultra, the Peronist demanded a public apology. “Argentina has millions of faithful Catholics and you offended the head of the Church,” he told him. “I want you to take advantage of these 45 seconds to ask for forgiveness from the Pope, who is the most important Argentine in history.” “My statements were made in a context when I was not yet in politics,” Milei answered meekly. “I have no problem repeating that I am sorry for that.”
The left, against everyone
The day before the debate was marked by the scandal of a Peronist official who was discovered on vacation in Marbella with a model on a private yacht and expensive gifts. The table seemed set for the attack against Massa, but the issue hovered among other emergencies. The one who touched it most clearly was Myriam Bregman, candidate of the left. “While they starve the people, they go on their luxury yachts to tour Europe,” she criticized in her presentation, and she criticized everyone. “He is not a lion,” he said of Milei, “he is a cuddly kitten of economic power.” Later he accused him of “dirtying” the word freedom. “When Milei talks about freedom, he talks about the freedom to fire you without compensation. Freedom for him is, if you want health, pay for it. He even defends the freedom to pollute rivers. In short, freedom for Milei is every man for himself.”
Bregman eloquently confronted Milei’s economic plan, Massa’s current management and Bullrich’s past managing security. He was so even-handed in his criticism that, in the round of direct crosses, Massa chose to ask him if he really thought it was the same whether Peronism or the extreme right governed. “I think the problem the country has is different,” he responded. “I think it’s time to say enough, to stop thinking about voting for someone who is less bad than the other and start having convictions, principles and values.” It remains for October 22 to know if he was so convincing as to add votes to the 2.65% that he obtained in the August primaries.
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