The presidential campaign in Argentina enters its tense final week

The hot campaign for the presidential elections of Argentinawhich are celebrated on October 22, entered its last week this Sunday, with the three main candidates hunting for votes from an electorate where division and growing fear prevail over the direction that the already battered Argentine economy will take.

There are only seven days left for elections in which 35.8 million Argentines are called to participate to elect a president and vice president who will govern the country’s destinies from December 10 and for a four-year term, in addition to partially renewing the composition of the Congress and elect Mercosur parliamentarians.

The election, which is held to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Argentina’s return to democracy, is preceded by primary elections held in August whose result showed a three-thirds divided electorate and surprised by positioning the libertarian economist Javier Milei as the candidate. most voted in that instance.

The majority of the polls known until this Saturday – the legal deadline to publish surveys – places in first place Milei (La Libertad Avanza, far-right), followed by the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa (Unión por la Patria, ruling Peronism) and leaving Patricia Bullrich (Together for Change, center-right) in third place.

The percentages of voting intention measured by the pollsters suggest that it will be necessary to hold a second electoral round, foreseeably between Milei and Massa, on November 19.

Argentine electoral law establishes that to win in the first round, a candidate needs to obtain 45% of the votes, or 40% and ten points ahead of the second most voted candidate.

Of the polls published until this Saturday, none predict that Milei will achieve that possibility, but neither was any pollster able to predict the number of votes won by the libertarian economist in the primaries (29.86%), so the scenario does not exclude surprises in next Sunday’s election and may emerge victorious in the first round.

Thus, the three main candidates strive to break the “three thirds” board in their favor: they multiply their appearances in the media, social networks and tours around the country, while they prepare their campaign closing events and their proselytizing artillery. final to be deployed before next Friday morning, when the reflection period will begin to take effect.

Everything suggests days of high political tension like those of last week, when the electoral duel hardened in the heat of the turbulence in the exchange market and when the ruling party blamed Milei and other leaders of its formation for their statements suggesting undoing investments in Argentine currency.

The controversy even included a judicial complaint by the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, to Milei, who proposes dollarization as a way out of the severe imbalances in the Argentine economy, which include inflation that rose to 138.3% year-on-year in September.

The political dispute does not reduce, but rather fuels even more, the strong uncertainty that prevails among businessmen, financial investors and all citizens about the adverse effects of the measures that any of the three main candidates could adopt in economic matters if they enter the House. Pink.

The fear of more devaluation, the specter of hyperinflation and the fear of a potential social overflow hover in the dense atmosphere of the days before the election.

According to the latest Social and Political Humor Monitor prepared by the consulting firm D’Alessio IROL/Berensztein, 55% of Argentines think that the economic situation will be worse than the current one.

According to the survey, inflation is the problem that most worries Argentines (91%), while insecurity and uncertainty about the economic situation share second place (73%).

An accumulation of concerns that will accompany an electorate where four out of every ten citizens are currently poor to the voting table.