Last Sunday, the Argentine people elected new authorities by mass vote, among them the presidential duo that will rule for the next four years.

Massa vs. Milei: 3 factors that will define which of the two will be the next president of Argentina

At the end of the day, the official results determined a run-off between the official candidate (however far from the current government he thought to threaten) Sergio Massa and Javier Milei, the controversial libertarian candidate, leaving Patricia Bullrich, the candidate, out of the race for Together for Change, a movement traditionally opposed Kirchnerism, which came to power a few years ago with Mauricio Macri.

That Massa came in first place, with more than 5% advantage over Javier Milei, was a surprise because in the weeks before the election, Milei’s victory was taken for granted, as happened in PASO (Open, Simultaneous and Compulsory) .

The path Milei must take to win over this electorate that does not want to vote for Kirchnerism will not be easy.

Argentina is probably going through the worst crisis in its history. Constant devaluations of its currency pushed the dollar exchange rate to unimagined levels, with a dramatic loss of purchasing power of its citizens; In addition, it always brings with it an economic crisis: crime, unemployment and disinvestment.

And the management of the current government is classified, without reservation, as catastrophic. So much so that in a country with strong trade union roots where Peronism is embedded in the subconscious of the masses, the penetrating and radical discourse of the extreme right has penetrated so deeply that it is only one election away from coming to power.

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Because if we look at the voting more broadly, it is very reasonable to think that the majority of votes for Together for Change should migrate to Milea, who would comfortably win the second round. At the end of the day, both of them, one more formally and measuredly, and the other with exuberant and radical ferocity, want better days for their people, for which it is essential to remove Kirchnerism from power, which has caused so much damage to the country.

The path Milei must take to win over this electorate that does not want to vote for Kirchnerism will not be easy. To begin with, you have to swallow all the adjectives against the candidates of Zajedno za za change and some of its leaders and candidates and ask for their support.

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Also, he must tone down his radical stance, which, admittedly, helped him get to these final stages, no doubt instilling fear in a large part of the electorate.

Something similar happened in Ecuador in the first round in 2006, when the outsider Rafael Correa, who was rising like foam in the polls, radicalized his leftist discourse and began to fall, costing him a defeat in the first round. So he started the second round with a visit to the mayor of Guayaquil, to thank him for what he did for his city, and then, to the ambassador of the United States, he put on a little right-wing perfume. The rest is history.

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It is that our people are afraid of change because they are worried about losing what little they have; And it can always be worse. Ecuador and Argentina are living proof of that today. (OR)