In win for far-right President Milei, Argentines deal a blow to centrists in local elections
In win for far-right President Milei, Argentines deal a blow to centrists in local elections
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — What was once one the main stronghold of the center-right in Argentina fell on Sunday to the radical libertarian party of President Javier Milei, a dramatic result that could help Milei’s chances in this year’s crucial midterms as voters across Buenos Aires abandoned the country’s main conservative party.
With the majority of votes counted in Sunday’s local elections, Milei’s top candidate and official spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, swept to victory, securing over 30% of the ballots in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires and splintering support for the center-right party of former President Mauricio Macri.
Macri’s PRO (Republican Proposal) party has governed Buenos Aires uninterrupted for the past 18 years. This time, the PRO candidate, Silvia Lospennato, came in third with 15.9% of the vote after Argentina’s populist Peronist party. Some 2.5 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday’s election, in which half of the 60 legislative seats were up for grabs.
“They tried in every way possible to break me, but they didn’t succeed,” Lospennato said Sunday, reeling from her party’s losses. “We will remain standing.”
Widely seen as a power struggle between far-right Milei and center-right Macri, the local race reflected the shifts that hard-right factions have pulled off around the world, from Europe to the United States, squeezing the political center.
“It turned into a crucial battle for the political leadership,” said Ignacio Labaqui, a senior analyst at research group Medley Global Advisors.
Adorni’s upset boosts Milei’s bid to portray his party as the main alternative to “Kirchnerismo,” the leftist populist faction that former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who governed for eight years after succeeding her husband in 2007, turned into the dominant force within the long-ruling Peronist movement.
“We said we were the only ones capable of beating Kirchnerismo,” said Karina Milei, Milei’s sister and top adviser who managed Adorni’s campaign. “Today we proved it once again.”
The win also strengthens Milei’s hand ahead of midterm elections in October, a high-stakes vote in which he hopes to expand the tiny congressional minority of his La Libertad Avanza party, or LLA, to complete his economic and institutional overhaul of Argentina’s bloated state and long troubled economy.
A former TV pundit known for his angry rants against Argentina’s political class, Milei founded LLA just four years ago, drawing a motley crew of political novices into his anti-establishment agenda.
With his party holding just 15% of seats in the lower house and 10% in the Senate, the president has been compelled to compromise with Macri, the scion of a wealthy family who governed from 2015-2019, in order to take a “chainsaw” to the state and reverse the unbridled spending of past Peronist administrations that ran up massive deficits.
Macri center-right supplied Milei’s new government with key ministers, brought him a conservative base and helped him secure the support of critical political brokers to help pass his radical agenda through the otherwise hostile Congress.
But that uneasy alliance has faltered in the past months as the two clashed over Milei’s effort to install a judge embroiled in corruption scandals on the Supreme Court, among other issues.
Tensions have marred their midterm negotiations over the distribution of seats in the legislature. In recent interviews, Macri has criticized Milei’s bellicose approach and what he called his “lack of respect” for Argentina’s institutions.
“Putting the economy in order is not enough. We must strengthen institutions, be predictable and regain respect for one another,” Macri told supporters last week.
The rivalry between the two turned ugly on Sunday as Macri’s party said it had filed a complaint with the Buenos Aires electoral court over a widely shared artificial intelligence-generated deepfake of Macri announcing that his candidate was dropping out of the race and urging voters to back Milei’s candidate instead.
While the origin of the false video was unclear, Macri blamed Milei’s supporters for “breaking all the rules.” Milei shot back that Macri was a “crybaby.”
“You’re made of glass,” Milei said as he went to vote Sunday, addressing Macri.
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Associated Press writer Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press
