The Argentine countryside, fed up with politics, leans uncomfortably towards Milei

While supervising a wheat field, farmer Javier Sunblad says he is “fed up with politics”. Without further conviction, dairy producer Máximo Russ will vote for the libertarian and far-right Javier Milei. The countryside, source of wealth Argentina, He goes uncomfortably to the presidential runoff.

In Saladillo, a city of 30,000 inhabitants less than 200 kilometers from Buenos Aires, in the agricultural production center of Argentina, the right-wing vote prevails with strongly anti-Peronist rural employers, against the candidate Sergio Massa, current Minister of Economy.

Massa, the most voted nationally in the first round (37%)came third in Saladillo behind Milei and the former conservative candidate of Together for Change Patricia Bullrich, who supported the libertarian when she was excluded from the runoff.

Pablo Cicaré, 52 years old and third generation in livestock marketing, anticipates good profits from a herd of 200 premium Angus cows with their calves at their feet and pregnant again.

He prefers not to reveal his vote but is in favor “to export freely”as Milei advocates, and against “populist policies”which identifies with Massa. “For years we have voted not for the one we like the most, but for the least bad one”said.

Sunblad, on the other hand, will not vote for Milei, but it does not fully trust Massa either.

Distrust

Agricultural exports from Argentina, among the main food producers in the world, represent almost 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. But if the agroindustrial productive chain is counted, the contribution to GDP reaches 25%.

The quiet streets of Saladillo, with low houses and flowering trees, are foreign to the electoral campaign. Only a Massa sign on the route reminds us that there are elections. None from Milei.

“Personally I don’t like any candidate,” clarifies Sunblad, 62 years old and for 30 years running a livestock farm with 2,000 hectares of soybeans, wheat and 400 heads of cattle.

In the countryside, production prospects are exciting after a disastrous agricultural campaign due to the worst drought of the century. But there is also fear that if Massa takes office on December 10, the government will seek to tax agricultural income even more.

“Paying taxes is not bad, but if not they steal them”said the farmer, concerned about the fate of the rural school that can be seen at the bottom of a dirt road, difficult to navigate when it rains.

“It has 22 students, children of farm workers. Will Milei still be open?”, he asked himself. The libertarian promotes a controversial payment model for public education “impossible to apply to schools like this”considered.

Even with distrust, he leans towards Massa “because in a country with a lot of economic inequality, with 40% poverty, there must be a strong State”, said. ““My wife will vote blank”he claimed.

For political consultant Carlos Germano, “Massa, although he did everything possible, could not achieve the confidence of the countryside that asks for predictability with medium and long-term policies.”

“Only option”

For Carlos Achetoni, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, Milei “It is an option, not a choice.”

The countryside votes him tired “due to years of aggressive policies” which summarizes high taxes, export limits and exchange controls. The gap between the official exchange market and the parallel one, of more than 150%, fuels annualized inflation 143%.

In Junín, northwest of Saladillo, Máximo Russ declares his support for Milei and is not afraid of the libertarian’s most controversial measures, which he considers mere political marketing.

“My candidate was Bullrich, but the only option I have left is him. “I agree with his ideas of opening the economy, eliminating the fiscal deficit, lowering government spending, not establishing relations with communist governments.”he listed.

On the other hand, he relativized other libertarian ideas with which he does not agree, such as dollarization, the free carrying of weapons or the sale of human organs. “He will not apply them because they do not make sense. “They are mere expressions to attract the public,” considered.

Milei, a utopia

In 2022, the agricultural sector exported US$ 49,581 million, 8.5% more than in 2021, vital support for the indebted Argentine economy.

“The countryside has a very important place in public life, it weighs economically in times of difficulties to sustain a cycle of growth”noted historian Roy Hora, doctorate at the University of Oxford and academic at the University of Quilmes.

But its political influence is very little. “Peronism has historically harmed the countryside with policies more favorable to other sectors. That’s why there is always tension.”he recalled.

Bullrich’s defeat displaced the field “from its natural center-right place to a more radical, anti-state and anti-tax place”said. “Many producers see Milei as a light at the end of the tunnel, a kind of utopia”.