THE centrist economy minister Sergio Massa and extreme liberal economist and “anti-systemic” candidate Javier Millay, who wants to “dismember” the state, put it through a “chainsaw”, will face each other on November 19 in second round of presidential elections in Argentinaa conflict between two competing visions for the future of the country.

The 51-year-old Massa, candidate of the ruling coalition (centre-left), managed to overcome the huge disadvantage of the problems of the economy and record inflation (138%) and emerged in the first place, securing 36.6% of the votes, according to the data of the national electoral commission, with over 97% of the ballots counted.

Defying predictions, he overtook the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” Mr. Miley, 53, who received 30% of the vote and thus confirmed his rather unexpected transformation into a central figure in the political scene, two years after entering the political arena. of Argentina. However, his percentage was well below what the polls predicted.

The winner of next month’s second round will take office on December 10.

The center-right opposition coalition candidate Patricia Bullrich, a former security minister and protégé of former president Mauricio Macri, was eliminated (23.8%).

The citizens of Argentina have voted in a climate of uncertainty and anxiety as rarely since the restoration of democracy 40 years ago, against the background of huge public debt, inflation that is among the highest on the planet and the currency in an unstoppable devaluation for two years.

Mr. Massa came close to victory from the first round. For this he needed to receive at least 45% of the vote, or 40% and have a 10-point margin over the nearest rival.

Mr. Miley announces that if he wins he is going to dollarize the economy, abolish the central bank and various ministries, and cut social spending.

His prescriptions for Latin America’s third largest economy, which remains mired in a deep crisis – poverty affects 40% of the once-rich country’s inhabitants – are, however, met with reactions and resistance.

The extreme liberal economist embodies the desire of part of the citizens to see traditional politicians “go away”, the “caste of parasites” as he calls the Peronists (center-left) and the center-right who have been alternating in power for twenty years, who switched to politics from the television sets.

Last night he spoke of “the best election in the history of liberalism”, of “a historic day for the two-thirds who want change”, apparently adding up his own figures with those of Mrs Bullrich. He reached out to the defeated candidate, suggesting that “all of us who want change” should “work together to take our country back.”

His incisive wording, his electrifying style, attracts an audience that is often young, without perspective. But his proposals sow doubts, as well as concerns.

“The world has begun to realize that Miley represents the risk,” analyzes political scientist Raoul Timmerman. His ‘chainsaw’ rhetoric, which at first “was funny”, has now evolved into something “frightening”, as it seems to “say: ‘I’m coming to destroy everything'”, he explains.

Sergio Massa, a politician with a centrist DNA, a candidate for the presidency in 2015, when he was an opponent of his current Peronist allies, carefully took care to distance himself from the outgoing government in his campaign: neither the outgoing president Alberto Fernandez, nor the vice president and former president Christina Kirchner appeared in it.

During it, he constantly repeated the message that “the worst” of the crisis is over, thanks to the upcoming export boom and the end of the historic drought of 2022-2023, which deprived Argentina, a giant of the agro-industrial sector, of $20 billion in revenue.

While above all, in recent months he has multiplied benefits: reducing the number of citizens with taxable incomes, subsidies, exemptions from VAT, to absorb the shock of inflation. His opponents have called him “irresponsible” as the deficit and debt in Argentina is a pathology and the country is struggling to repay a $44 billion loan to the IMF.

Last night Mr Massa promised if elected to form a “government of national unity”, something unprecedented in democratic Argentina.

Nothing has been decided, according to Benjamin Gedan, an Argentina expert at the Wilson Center think tank. Mr Massa “remains the finance minister of a deeply unpopular government”. However, in Argentina, the idea that the role of the welfare state will change drastically creates “great anxiety, many have a lot to lose”, he adds.