Who are the five candidates who will seek the presidency of Argentina this Sunday, October 22?

There are five candidates eager to become the head of the Argentine state this Sunday, October 22, in elections characterized by an economy under control, with serious monetary and budgetary imbalances, stagnant activity, the specter of looming hyperinflation and rising levels. poverty.

Argentines go to the polls between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to elect a president and vice president; 130 delegates from all over the country; and 24 senators in 8 provinces; in addition to 19 parliamentarians for Mercosur per national district and 24 per regional district.

A possible second round could take place on November 19. And the presidential inauguration will take place on December 10.

The favorite in the polls, the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, immediately proposes dollarizing the economy; the conservative Patricia Bullrich, shrinks the state and frees the currency market; and the Peronist Sergio Massa, the current Minister of Economy, is campaigning and promising to promote exports and development with social inclusion. Everyone talks about the budget order. They are the three candidates who are most popular in the polls, but there are five for the Casa Rosada.

The five candidates were nominated in last August’s primaries, when they received at least the 1.5% of popular support needed to run for president.

This is Javier Milei, the disruptive candidate who has turned the governance of Argentine politics upside down; Sergio Massa, the economy minister who, in the midst of the crisis, aims to keep the ruling party in power; Patricia Bullrich fighting the predictions that could leave her out of a possible runoff. In addition, the current governor of Córdoba, Juan Schiaretti, who represents dissident Peronism, and the lawyer Myriam Bregman, candidate of the Left and Workers’ Front, appear as candidates.

Below are the five candidates, in order of support in the August internal elections:

Javier Milei (Freedom Moves Forward)

This libertarian economist, a loyal follower of the Austrian school and who worked as a consultant for important companies, previously became known in television programs. jumping into the political arena.

Rolling Stones fan; former goalkeeper of Chacarita Juniors; He lives with four English mastiffs, which he calls his ‘children’, and he also keeps Conan, another deceased dog, stuffed animals; His romantic partner is Fátima Florez, a comedian who impersonates Cristina Fernández among the characters. He will be 53 years old on election day.

He was the leader with the most votes in the primaries (with 29.86%), advocating the use of a symbolic ‘chainsaw’ to shrink the structure of the state, dollarize the economy, privatize public enterprises and reduce bureaucratic requirements to facilitate access to weapons and organs. contribution. Moreover, it denies climate change and denies that 30,000 people disappeared during the military dictatorship (1976-1983).

Patricia Bullrich (Together for Change)

The center-right party – whose reference is former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) – was the second most voted political party in the August 13 primaries, with 28%, in which this 67-year-old political scientist defeated the mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, to aspire to the presidency for the first time with ideas such as cuts in public spending, standing firm against crime and the fight against strikes and street stings.

She was Minister of Labour, Employment and Human Resources Training (2000-2001) and of Social Security (October-November 2001) in the government of the radical Fernando de la Rúa; and Security in Macri’s (2015-2019), a time when he – as he now advocates – imposed a crackdown on putting an end to crime and even went so far as to say that whoever ‘wants to be armed, should be armed are’. .”

A Peronist in her youth – she even joined a youth corps under the umbrella of the Montoneros guerrilla – ‘La Piba’ or ‘Pato’, as she is known, lived in Brazil at the beginning of the military dictatorship and Spain and returned to Death rattles the regime, before leaving the ranks of Peronism in the late 1990s.

Sergio Massa (Union for the Fatherland)

This 51-year-old, astute lawyer, who was appointed ‘Super Minister’ of Economy in July 2022 (after taking over three portfolios under one), is characterized by his great political ambition and pragmatism and is considered the shadow president of these last months from the government. by Alberto Fernández and is well regarded by the establishment and financial circles of the United States.

Between 2008 and 2009, he was chief of staff to then-ruler Cristina Fernández (2007-2015), with whom he later had a falling out, leading him to found the Frente Renovador, a critical movement within the Peronist movement. But despite this, in recent times he has received the approval of the former president (and the current vice president) to be nominated as the preferred candidate of Unión por la Patria (new name assigned to the official group Frente de Todos), and he received 27.28% support in the primaries.

Twice Mayor of Tigre (a city in the province of Buenos Aires where he lives) and President of the Chamber of Deputies before taking over the Economy portfolio. He was already a presidential candidate in 2015, when he came third, behind Mauricio Macri and Daniel Scioli (aspirant to official Peronism). He is married to political scientist Malena Galmarini, chairman of the board of directors of the state-owned company Agua y Saneamiento Argentinos (AYSA).

Juan Schiaretti (We do it for our country)

Under the motto of ‘making a normal country’, with all that that entails in terms of the socio-economic crisis and the political divide that Argentina is experiencing, the governor of the powerful Córdoba, representative of a federal Peronism – dissident of the ruling party – to extrapolate to the rest of the country what he developed during his three terms at the head of that central Argentine province. With Florencio Randazzo, twice Cristina Fernández’s minister, as vice-presidential candidate, Schiaretti is trying to focus on the countryside, according to him the biggest victim of the executive’s tax policy; combating drug trafficking and helping SMEs. His leadership at the head of Hacemos por Nuestro País earned him 3.71% support in the primaries.

At the age of 74, this public accountant, nicknamed ‘El Gringo’, prides himself on being the only candidate from the country’s interior and is confronted for the first time with a national candidacy for which he would run in 2019, although on that occasion he withdrew when the alliance between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández became known.

Myriam Bregman (Left and Workers’ Front)

Lawyer and activist of human rights and feminism, this representative of the city of Buenos Aires is running for president for the first time, with proposals such as betting on public services, breaking with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – creditor of Argentina’s debts -, shorten the workday to generate jobs and raise the minimum wage. In 2015, she already joined the formula as vice president of presidential candidate Nicolás del Caño (today his number two).

She was born 51 years ago in Timote (Buenos Aires), descended from German Jews and nicknamed ‘La Rusa’. She leads the Left and Workers Front, which won 2.61% of the vote in the August primaries. As a minority candidate, she delivered two strong performances in two election debates, strongly defending her proposals and attacking her rivals with boldness and vigor.

She is co-founder of the Center of Professionals for Human Rights and the collective Justicia Ya!, participates in the feminist movement Pan y Rosas and is often found in social mobilizations. One of his most notable cases is the representation he took on of Julio López, a witness who disappeared in 2006, in the case against Miguel Etchecolatz, director of investigations of the Buenos Aires police during the dictatorship. (JO)