Argentina’s first presidential debate ended without a clear winner. The far-right candidate, the economist Javier Milei, did not shine this Sunday in the star topic, the difficult economic situation of the country, but he did not need it either. Favorite in the polls ahead of the general elections on October 22, Milei preferred not to risk and managed to keep his well-known anger under control. He was enough to get out of the television dispute alive, in which he was one of the most criticized candidates, along with Sergio Massa, current Minister of Economy and candidate for the ruling Peronism. Massa breathed a sigh of relief: his rivals only mentioned in passing the major scandals that emerged from his ranks during the last weeks of the campaign. The Together for Change candidate, Patricia Bullrich, was the least forceful. She needed a good performance to come back—she is third in voting intentions—and she did not achieve it. She got stuck on several occasions and her opponents attacked her on her weakest flank: her economic proposals.
The debate was held in Santiago del Estero, in the north of the country. It began with a quick presentation of the five candidates for the Presidency of Argentina – Milei, Massa, Bullrich, the progressive Myriam Bregman and the provincial governor of Córdoba and dissident Peronist Juan Schiaretti – before fully entering the economic bloc. Bregman’s initial reference to the vacation in Marbella for which a senior Kirchnerist official resigned this Saturday — “While they starve the people, they go on their luxury yachts to tour Europe” — made one think that it would be one of the repeated darts of the night, but it wasn’t like that. Only Bullrich used it again to respond to Massa’s proposal to make a law to punish tax evaders with prison sentences. “You already have the first one. take it to [Martín] Insaurralde”, he answered.
The attacks by the candidates opposing Massa for his poor results at the head of the Treasury Palace focused on the economic part. They blamed him for having brought inflation to the current 124.4%, for making poverty exceed 40% and for decreeing “small money plans” that only increase the monetary issue and the fiscal deficit. Massa accepted having made some mistakes, but mostly he blamed the government of Mauricio Macri for having put the country in debt, the International Monetary Fund for dictating economic policy, and tax evaders, among many others. And he looked forward with a battery of proposals, such as the creation of a digital currency, a money laundering law and prison sentences for those who defraud the Treasury. Towards the end of the debate, he said that he would call for a great national agreement if he reached the Casa Rosada.
In that first block, the candidates also attacked Milei, who asked for votes and time to implement his ultraliberal economic project. “If you give me 20 years, we are Germany. If they give me 35… United States,” promised the leader of La Libertad Avanza. Her most criticized proposal was dollarization. Bullrich warned that Argentina does not have dollars to adopt it, while Massa highlighted that this model “only three countries in the world have: Zimbabwe, Ecuador and El Salvador.” Bregman emphasized the business ties of the ultra-liberal economist: “he is not a lion, he is a cuddly kitten of economic power.”
The format chosen for the debate, with only five rights of reply throughout its two-hour duration, prevented interruptions and major crossovers between the five candidates. There were mocking smiles from Milei in the face of some attacks and gestural refusals from Massa, but if they made any comments she could not be heard because her microphones were turned off when it was not her turn. Massa and Milei spent their replicas in the economic bloc, in which they feel most comfortable, while the other candidates chose to distribute them. The great distance in voting intention between Bregman and Schiaretti – less than 5% in both cases – compared to the three central opponents left them out of that fight. The Cordoba governor’s repeated comparisons between Argentina and his province drew attention away from his interventions and subsequently became fodder for memes on social networks.
In the second block, Education, the roles among the right-wing leaders were reversed. Bullrich gained some security and Milei lost it. Both read a large part of their interventions, which made them less natural, but the La Libertad Avanza candidate got tangled when explaining his controversial proposal for vouchers educational. “No more giving them fish. We are going to teach them how to fish or have a fishing company,” Milei said. “Go with him voucher to the Puna, to any place. You don’t know Argentina. You propose a model that only works for the City of Buenos Aires. He voucher “It is not equality,” Bullrich responded. Milei had exhausted her turns to respond and could not answer him.
Denialist speech
The public could choose some topics and voted to include human rights, one of the most disputed points. Milei made it clear that she has adopted the denialist ideas of the dictatorship of her vice presidential candidate, Victoria Villarruel. “We value the vision of Memory, Truth and Justice. Let’s start with the truth. There were not 30,000 missing, there are 8,753″, she pointed out when taking the report’s number as the only valid number. Never more made by the National Commission on Disappearance of Persons (Conadep) in 1984. For Milei, there was not a dictatorship in Argentina but “a war” in which “the forces of the State committed excesses.” Bregman responded harshly: “Milei dirtyes the word freedom.”
The final part was dedicated to questions and answers between the candidates. Milei threatened to lose her manners a couple of times, but she caught herself in time. One of them was when Massa reminded her of her harsh attacks on Pope Francis and urged him to ask for forgiveness. “Stop chicanering and dedicate yourself to lowering inflation,” responded the leader of La Libertad Avanza, who assured that he had not yet entered politics when he said that the pontiff was an “imbecile,” a “disgusting lefty” and the “representative of the Evil one”. In the next round, Schiaretti upset him again. He asked Milei how he was going to implement the educational plan he has if Education is the responsibility of the provinces; the candidate dodged an answer that he did not have.
The next presidential debate will take place in Buenos Aires on Sunday, October 8. It will be the last opportunity for the candidates to face each other before the elections on the 22nd of this month. If none of them wins with 45% of the votes or with 40% at a distance of at least 10 points from the second, the two with the most votes will go to the second round and before the meeting at the polls they will debate again in front of the cameras.
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