Argentina election: Far-right front-runner places second to establishment leftist

Sergio Massa, economy minister in Argentina's center-left Peronist government, unexpectedly won a plurality of votes in Sunday's presidential election. Javier Milei, a libertarian "anarcho-capitalist" economist with far-right social positions, came in second, with 30% to Massa's 36.6%, according to near-complete returns. A Nov. 19 runoff election will determine Argentina's next president.

Former security minister Patricia Bullrich came in third place, with just under 24%. Turnout was 74%, BBC reported, citing local media.

Milei, 53, had led in most polls since unexpectedly coming in first in the August primary election, and he also consumed the majority of media attention. He earned comparisons to former U.S. President Donald Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his far-right burn-it-all-down populism.

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"For Milei, this should be a shock," Argentine political scientist Ignacio Labaqui told The New York Times, noting that his share of the vote was about the same as in the primary while Massa expanded his base by warning about the dangers of a Milei presidency.

Milei's key proposals included replacing the Argentine peso with the U.S. dollar, eliminating the central bank and 10 of Argentina's 18 federal departments, and slashing taxes, regulations and government spending. He also promised a culture war against the "woke" left and called climate change a "socialist lie."

Political analysts had downplayed Massa's chances in part because he oversaw an economy where inflation was near 140% and the value of the peso had plummeted from about 80 to the U.S. dollar before the Covid-19 pandemic to 1,200 pesos to the dollar. He could still lose if Bullrich's supporters flock to Milei — "there remains strong anti-Peronist sentiment across the nation," the Times noted. But a combination of loyal Peronist support and concern about Milei's social and economic experiments appear to have given Massa a leg up.

Milei is "like a kamikaze," Buenos Aires voter Franco Espinosa, 27, told The Washington Post. "It's like lending your car to someone when they don't know how to drive."