Political situation in Argentina

Argentine right-wing populist Javier Milei. AP 

 

Political situation in Argentina  

Right-wing populist won big in Argentine primary election  

 

Right-wing populist leader Javier Milei and his party La libertad avanza won over 30 percent of the vote in Argentina's primary election on Sunday. This is reported by La Nacion.  

 

Milei calls himself an "anarcho-capitalist" and thinks Argentina's central bank should be abolished. According to the AP, he admires Donald Trump and thinks that climate change is a lie and that sex education in school "destroys the family".  

 

It was also a "disastrous election" for the incumbent government, the left-wing coalition Unión por la patria, which landed in third place with 27.2 percent.  

 

Incumbent President Alberto Fernández will not stand for re-election after facing fierce criticism for failing to stop the massive inflation that has hit the country

 

Javier Miley. Natacha Pisarenko / AP 

Analysis: Milei capitalizes on Argentine anger  

One of Argentina's right-wing populist Javier Milei's main assets is his ability to identify and attract those groups of society who feel left out and who are generally tired of politics. That's what José Del Rio writes in La Nacion after Milei and his party surprisingly won Sunday's primaries.  

The Argentine is thus reminiscent of Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro and America's Donald Trump, but there is a difference, says Del Rio. He is more of an outsider compared to Bolsonaro, who already had many years of experience in politics, and Trump, who was strongly supported by the Republican Party.  

But can he really make it all the way to the presidency? Political scientist Alejandro Corbacho says that what used to be a fight between the two biggest parties has now become a fight between three parties - with Milei being the outsider.  

Like La Nacional, Corbacho notes that the voters who can carry Milei all the way are those who are fed up with the establishment. 

- It is clear that there is a lot of anger, he told Reuters.  

One of the main reasons is the economic situation, with inflation running above 100 percent.