The considered by some extremely liberal, by others far-right candidate for the presidency of Argentina, Javier Millay, ensured the support of the centre-right ex-president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019); Nevertheless conservative opposition remains divided ahead of second round, in which the “anti-systemic” Mr. Miley will face off against the chosen one of the center-left coalition of the Peronists, Sergio Massa.

“The change proposal in the second round is that of Javier Millay. We must have the humility to recognize (…) that the citizens chose Miley to lead the change,” the 64-year-old former head of state told Radio Mitre.

“This is the only path for Argentina,” so “we must support him without expecting anything in return,” continued Mr. Macri, who in the first round strongly supported the former security minister of his government, whom he mentored. However, Patricia Bullrich took third place, securing 23.8% of the votes, behind Mr. Miley (29.9%) and Masha (36.6%). The latter, a centrist politician, is the Minister of Economy of the outgoing government.

“This is unconditional support, no deal was made”, assured Mr. Macri, underlining that he has “differences” of opinion with Mr. Millay, who declares that the welfare state will be put through a “chainsaw” and demands that “everyone leave” those who represent the old guard of politics.

Mr Macri’s support came as a surprise to some, as although he has admitted in the past that he agrees with some dimensions of Mr Millay’s liberalism, he actively supported Patricia Bullrich in the run-off.

It took place yesterday, Friday, two days after Mrs Bullrich herself, who also declared that she was choosing Javier Millay in the name of “change”, against the “mafia continuity”, that is Mr Massa and the Peronist government under the outgoing president Alberto Fernandes.

However, both Ms. Bullrich and Mr. Macri made it clear that they were not speaking on behalf of the center-right opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (“Together for Change”), nor even their right-wing PRO party.

In recent days, both the opposition coalition and their party have been deeply divided ahead of a runoff. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Larreta, an unfortunate candidate in the intra-party process won by Ms. Bullrich, said he found “both” second-round options “disastrous for Argentina” and added that he “cannot” support either Mr. He speaks, not even Mr. Massa.

But he expressed himself in a harsher way about Javier Millay, characterizing his announcements as “jumping into the void” and his candidacy “at the limits of democracy”.

The UCR, the centrist component of the opposition coalition, also repudiated Ms Bullrich’s position and said it “will not support either candidate”. He blamed Mr Massa for widening poverty and inflation, but his president, Gerardo Morales, said a Miley victory would bring a “worse” situation, putting Argentina on the road to “its darkest night”. .