Discontent with the economic situation and the unfulfilled promises of the last Government resonates among Argentines residing in Madrid, who predominantly appeal to one thing: change. Javier Milei, Patricia Bullrich and Sergio Massa face each other at the polls this Sunday to succeed the current president, Alberto Fernández, in one of the most uncertain elections since the return to democracy, 40 years ago. Among the Argentine expatriates who have come to the voting center in Madrid on election day, there is a feeling of discontent, anger, but also hope.
Carmen Aguilera, 49, voted early in the morning at the Colegio Mayor Argentino, the place scheduled for voting. She is a housewife and has been living in Madrid for 13 years. Her vote has been for Milei, the outsider far-right that burst into Argentine politics two years ago with an agenda based on the reduction of the State, which calls into question conquered rights such as abortion or the memory and reparation agreements of the military dictatorship. “He is the only one who can make a change and the only hope we have. If he does not win, we will be worse than Venezuela,” he says. The economic situation in Argentina is one of the biggest concerns among citizens, intensified by uncontrolled hyperinflation and the loss of purchasing power. “No one is perfect, but within [candidatos] “Whatever there is, he is the one who can move the country forward.”
Voting abroad has increased exponentially over the years. In the 2019 presidential elections, 50,000 expatriate Argentines voted, five times more than those who went to the polls in the 2015 elections. The registry has also grown: in Spain, the number of those called to vote rose by 20,000 in four years ; in the world, 70,000. Despite being a demographic that has little impact on the general results, representing only 1.5% of potential voters, Argentines in Spain vote with conviction.
A few meters from the exit doors of the Colegio Mayor sits Lautaro Aguilar, a 21-year-old young man. He also voted for Milei. “I really like the way he wants to manage the economy,” he says. His voice mixes with the music that comes from his speaker, rock in Spanish from the nineties. The leader of La Libertad Avanza has especially conquered young men, who, like Aguilar, value his “way of thinking.” In the last polls before the elections, Milei led voting intentions, with up to 35.3%, well above Massa’s 30% or Bullrich’s 25.9%. If confirmed, this support would not be enough to win in the first round, for which it is necessary to obtain a victory of 45% or 40% if there is an advantage of at least 10 points with respect to the second.
Migrate due to the crisis
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In Spain, more than 110,000 Argentines are called to vote, almost a quarter of the 451,200 who can exercise this right in 87 countries. The largest voting location is in Barcelona, with 47,044 voters, followed by Madrid (34,196) and Cádiz (11,780). The rest are located in Tenerife, Vigo and Palma. Greta Frankenfeld, 48, has traveled from Bilbao to vote in Madrid. “If I have to go back to vote in the second round, I will go back,” she says. She has been a Peronist for years and has voted for Massa, Minister of Economy and apprentice of former president Néstor Kirchner. She is the only left-wing candidate with real chances of competing with Milei in a probable second round. “I think that [Massa] It is the only viable option, any other seems even dangerous for Argentina and the world,” he says. She speaks in a low voice, doubtful whether she should tell who she voted for: “Abroad people tend to vote more to the right. “We are a minority.” In the 2019 elections, former president Mauricio Macri swept the foreign vote, with 75% of the votes.
Among those who have voted for Bullrich is José Leonardo García, 38 years old, who wears the Argentine National Team jacket. “Of all the candidates, she is the most coherent and the one with the best model of change that we need for our country,” he says. He migrated to Spain during the great economic crisis of the 1990s and is now a building janitor. For García, Milei is a “freak” who “would lead the country to the same crisis” from which he fled. The Together for Change candidate was, six months ago, the safe bet to move to the Casa Rosada, when Peronism was in an arduous internal crisis. Now, her voters hardly trust that she will go to the second round and rally the vote against the far right. The last polls before the elections, from 17 polling houses, only twice grant Bullrich a pass to an eventual second round, scheduled for November 19, according to the electoral authorities.
Guillermo di Gregorio and his daughter, Paula, aged 66 and 20, have voted for Bullrich. How do you justify your vote? “She is much more sensible than Milei. “My generation has connected with him simply because they are tired of Peronism,” the young woman responds. They have been in Spain for 18 years and migrated for economic reasons, as well as the majority of the people consulted by this newspaper. The phenomenon is not coincidental. An April report from the Observatory of Applied Social Psychology, at the University of Buenos Aires, reveals that five out of every 10 residents of Argentina’s main urban centers would leave the country. Among young people between 18 and 29 years old, the figure increases to seven out of every 10. The main reasons for migrating are the “situation of decline” in the country, insecurity, lack of job opportunities and the economic crisis. For this last reason, Estela Mares, 66, migrated to Spain two years ago. “It wasn’t easy to leave my roots behind, the country I love,” she says a few minutes after voting. However, she highlights the general feeling: “We are all in good spirits, sure that Argentina deserves a really profound change.”
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