Argentina: Center-Right Establishment Collapses, Yielding to Populist Conservatives

Defeated Argentine presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich, who led the main conservative coalition in the country prior to this weekend, endorsed libertarian opponent Javier Milei on Wednesday ahead of the upcoming runoff.

Milei came in second place in Sunday’s presidential election after socialist Economy Minister Sergio Massa — responsible for historically high inflation rates of nearly 140 percent — to secure a spot in the November 19 runoff. Sunday’s presidential election saw Massa in first place with 36.68 percent of the votes against Milei’s 29.98 percent and Bullrich’s 23.8 percent. By doing so, Milei, who established his Liberty Advances party coalition two years ago, locked Bullrich out of the race.

Bullrich’s endorsement has reshuffled Argentina’s political board, as it functionally dissolves the Together for Change (JxC) coalition that up to this point was the main establishment opposition group against outgoing leftist President Alberto Fernández, who leads Massa’s coalition. Some politicians and minor parties that belonged to the JxC coalition have rejected Bullrich’s stance.

Massa’s electoral performance came as a surprise, as Argentina is experiencing the near-total collapse of its economy and has reached inflation rates of upwards of 130 percent during Massa’s tenure as economy minister.

Following Sunday’s results, Milei immediately made calls to make “tabula rasa” with center-right voters in a bid to oust the socialists.

Javier Milei, presidential candidate for the Liberty Advances (LLA) party, during the Americas Society/Council of the Americas Latin American Cities Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (Erica Canepa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Milei invited Bullrich and her followers to cast aside differences, forget quarrels, and join forces to end Kirchnerism, the left-wing Peronist type of government that has ruled Argentina for nearly two decades. The term was coined from the names of late President Néstor Kirchner and his wife, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

“The campaign made many of us who want change see each other in a confrontation, that is why I am here to end this process of aggressions and attacks,” Milei said on Sunday. “I am willing to make tabula rasa, shuffle and start anew, to end Kirchnerism.”

“Beyond our differences, what we have to understand is that before us we have a criminal organization that will leave no barbarity uncommitted to stay in power,” Milei continued. “Kirchnerism is the worst thing to happen to Argentina.”

Following a few days of speculation and rumored meetings between the right-wing coalitions, Bullrich held a press conference on Wednesday in which she confirmed her endorsement of Milei ahead of the November 19 election.

“The majority of Argentines chose change. We represent part of that change. We have the obligation not to be neutral. We believe that we have to join forces,” Bullrich said.

“In the case of Javier Milei, we have differences, and that’s why we competed. We don’t overlook them,” she added. “However, we are faced with the dilemma of change or the continuation of a mafia-style governance for Argentina and putting an end to the shame of the present.”

Bullrich emphasized that she has the obligation not to remain neutral because of the urgency of the historic moment Argentina is currently in and the danger that a Massa victory presents, a scenario she described as the “domination of a corrupt populism that would lead to final decadence.”

Bullrich is the current president of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party, one of the several parties that was part of the JxC coalition. The party is led by former President Mauricio Macri, who reportedly arranged the encounter between Milei and Bullrich in his own residence. Under JxC, Macri was elected as president of Argentina for the 2015-2019 term, losing against Férnandez in 2019 when the former sought reelection.

Bullrich emphasized in her press conference that she was speaking on behalf of her presidential campaign team rather than the JxC coalition.

Milei followed Bullrich’s announcement by posting an A.I.-generated picture of a lion hugging a duck on his Twitter account, symbolizing the newly established alliance. Both Milei and his political campaign has heavily featured the imagery of a lion, while Bullrich is often referred to as Pato (“Duck”) by her followers, one of the common nicknames for Patricia in the country.

Bullrich’s endorsement of Milei was not well received by some politicians within the now-splintered JxC coalition. Horacio Larreta, the mayor of Buenos Aires, announced that he would not support Milei or Massa, describing both presidential options as “very bad.” 

Larreta was one of JxC’s potential presidential candidates, who lost to Bullrich in August’s open primary election.

“Now, beyond that, if I believed in his [Milei] ideas I would support him,” Larreta said. “The problem is that he is not good for the country. That is why I cannot support a candidate who hurts Argentines.”

“There is a third alternative, which is to work to maintain Together for Change,” Laretta continued. “I know that there was talk of ruptures, of fights, that does not add up to anything. I will always fight to support the coalition.”

The center-left Radical Civic Union party, which was also part of the JxC alliance, announced that it would not endorse either candidate, stating that it would instead maintain a “position of neutrality.”

Milei and Bullrich held a joint interview hosted on Wednesday evening by the Argentine news channel Todo Noticias. Milei described Bullrich’s endorsement as a “gesture of intellectual honesty.”

“We had a meeting in which we apologized to each other for what happened in the campaign, we did it in a sincere way and we accepted each other’s apologies,” Milei said. “From there we rebuilt the bond, sometimes the logic of the campaign leads to some excesses.”

Throughout the presidential campaign, Milei accused Bullrich of having been a terrorist and a “bomb-throwing” member of the Argentine left-wing Peronist Montoneros guerrilla organization.

Presidential candidate for Juntos Por El Cambio Patricia Bullrich speaks during the final debate ahead of the presidential elections at Facultad de Derecho of Universidad de Buenos Aires on October 08, 2023, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Agustin Marcarian – Pool/Getty Images)

Bullrich responded to the accusations by filing two lawsuits against Milei for slander and libel in early October. Bullrich alleged that Milei made the accusations “knowing them to be false” and that he only sought to “obtain an electoral advantage based on lies.”

“The campaign was hard and we got out of hand, especially when there are many things in common. Now we turn the page,” Milei said. “The priority is change because those of us who want change are the majority.”

The libertarian economist explained that, in his opinion, had they been able to form an alliance some time ago, one of the two would have been able to win the presidency in the first round.

“If you play it as neutral, you support Sergio Massa, Cristina Kirchner and corruption. We come to propose change,” Milei asserted. “Do you want to continue with the decadence? Stay with Massa, who is in this culture of vagrancy, of releasing prisoners and generating inflation.”

“Kirchnerism is a monstrosity that is finished, and it can only revive if we make a mistake. If it had been my turn to be on Bullirch’s side, I would have done the same,” he continued.

Bullrich defended her endorsement of Milei during the interview.

“What we did was to set the objective that we believe the country needs, which is that there should be a deep change, a change in the economic and social matrix, in Argentina’s standard of living,” she said, “and for that we chose to be with those who were the part of the change that got the most votes.”

“In JxC, the decision was made to have freedom,” she added. “In the framework of that freedom, in the framework of a representativeness that we have, because we won a [open primary] PASO and we are the most representative of JxC because we won a PASO against Horacio [Larreta], Gerardo Morales, Lousteau, we legitimized ourselves … In the framework of a divided opposition, which historically has been bad, Liberty Advances got six points more than us.”

Bullrich further reinforced her stance by explaining that “with the representation given to me by the people, not by a party, we made the decision of no to continuity, no to Kirchnerism, no to what represents the populist corporate model of Massa, Cristina Kirchner, Alberto Fernández and yes to the search for a change.”

Bullrich continued by asserting that it was not a solitary choice but, rather, a decision of a “number of leaders” that “every day is going to take a much bigger political volume.”

Bullrich stated on her Twitter account that “the reconciliation and hug with Milei is for the people who are having a hard time.”

“I will never be left with personal anger when what is at stake is the future of the Argentines,” she added.

Milei stated during the interview that he maintains direct conversations with Macri and Bullrich regarding securing the support of Juan Schiaretti, the governor of the province Córdoba who obtained roughly seven percent of the votes in Sunday’s presidential election.

The libertarian economist clarified that “there are no positions involved or negotiations of that size, what we do say is that we accept anyone who wants to go against Kirchnerism.”

Bullrich confirmed Milei statements, asserting that “we are not asking for anything, we are going to support them because we do not want Kirchnerism to remain in power, then if they give us ministries it is another thing.”

A poll carried out by CB Consultora between Monday and Tuesday shows a very close race between Milei and Massa, with Milei defeating Massa with 50.7 percent of the votes against 49.3.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.