Argentina’s election has seen a chainsaw-wielding, TikTok-savvy outsider take on an economy minister who has overseen record inflation and a tough-talking former security minister.
The leading candidates were battling for three very different visions of Argentina, centred on their proposed remedies for the country’s perennial economic ills.
So who is in the running?
Javier Milei: ‘TikTok guy’ with chainsaw
Buenos Aires lawmaker Javier Milei pulled off a massive upset when he finished first in primary elections in August with more than 30 percent of the vote.
The libertarian with dishevelled hair and a rock-star persona has grabbed public attention with diatribes on television and social media – where he vows to “dynamite” the central bank and ditch the peso for the US dollar.
He has maintained his lead in the polls, showing up at rallies brandishing a powered-up chainsaw to evoke the cuts he plans to make to the bloated state.
Some observers are alarmed at the emergence of yet another populist drawing comparisons to former US president Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.
But for many fed-up Argentines, Milei – who slams the “thieving and useless political caste” that has been running the country – is a glimmer of hope in the face of a seemingly endless economic quagmire.
After decades of politics dominated by the populist Peronist movement – heavy on state intervention and welfare programmes – the economy has lurched between debt defaults and inflationary crises.
Sergio Massa: under-fire economy minister
Since he took office a year ago, Sergio Massa has overseen Argentina’s economy as it hit annual inflation levels of 138 percent and historic poverty of 40 percent.
Nevertheless, the charismatic 51-year-old lawyer-turned-politician was chosen as the best option to represent the centre-left Peronist ruling coalition, which has grown deeply unpopular.
In 2008 and 2009, Massa was Cabinet chief to then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The two had a bitter falling out but reconciled for 2019 elections won by President Alberto Fernández with Fernández de Kirchner as vice-president.
In July last year, he was named “super minister” of a portfolio bringing together the Economy, Productive Development, and Agriculture, Fisheries & Livestock ministries in a bid to calm the economic crisis.
Patricia Bullrich: ‘All or nothing’ hardliner
Patricia Bullrich, 67, the presidential candidate for the centre-right opposition coalition, campaigned on the slogan “all or nothing.”
She has called for a harsh audit of the country’s plethora of social assistance programmes, budget cuts, and the liberalization of currency exchange controls.
Bullrich has also said she will implement a dual currency regime with both the peso and the dollar as legal tender.
SOURCE: www.batimes.com.ar