Argentine elections: Right-wing candidate endorses far-right's Milei for runoff, creating schisms in both coalitions

Far-right presidential candidate Javier Milei announced Wednesday that he and Patricia Bullrich, a hard-right candidate eliminated from the runoff in elections held on Sunday, had allied ahead of the upcoming run-off because “getting to power is [the] priority.”

Bullrich's endorsement of Milei - reportedly brokered by right-wing former President Mauricio Macri - sent shockwaves in both Bullrich's and Milei's coalitions.

Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, 57, noted that while “both options are very bad” - referring to Milei and center-left candidate Sergio Massa, 51 (who placed first but will face Milei in the November 19th runoff) - “I don’t believe in anything that Milei proposes.”

“His ideas are bad and dangerous. It’s not good for the country - it’s what I think, they're my convictions.”

The pro-Trump economist, 53 - who has pledged to deregulate everything from firearms to organ transplants - said he believed he’d secure a majority in the runoff by attracting all of Bullrich’s votes; but the first poll published after the October 22nd elections suggests this is unlikely:

The Proyección poll showed that 24% of Bullrich voters would vote for Milei, 14% for Massa, 20% were undecided, and the remaining 42% would spoil their ballot or not show up to vote.

Overall, 45% of respondents said they’d vote for Massa and 34% for Milei in the run-off - though the poll was conducted before Bullrich, 67, formally backed Milei.

Massa, the nation's current Economy Minister, defied expectations by garnering nearly 37% of Sunday's vote - compared to 30% for Milei (who had been the front-runner for months), and 24% for Bullrich.

Anti-democratic demagogue

Numerous other leaders in Bullrich's right-wing Together for Change (JxC) coalition likewise distanced themselves from her endorsement of the bombastic Milei - including all 10 JxC governors or governors-elect and the leaders of the two centrist parties within the JxC: Gerardo Morales of the UCR, and the Civic Coalition's Elisa Carrió.

Nor was the endorsement welcomed by all in Milei's neo-fascist Forward Liberty (LLA) party: Three of the 35 LLA congresspeople elected on Sunday defected from the party, as well as Luis Barrionuevo - long the leading right-wing figure in Argentina's largely left-leaning labor movement.

Milei, who often praises Argentina's fascist last dictatorship - which killed up to 30,000 while bankrupting the country during its 1976-83 reign - was condemned as a “a demagogue who affects democratic coexistence” by UCR Vice President Martín Lousteau following Bullrich's endorsement.

At: https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/milei-on-bullrich-alliance-getting-to-power-is-the-priority

Far-right candidate Javier Milei embraces hard-right candidate Patricia Bullrich after receiving her endorsement for the November 19th runoff - from which she was eliminated after receiving 24%, to Milei's 30%.

Milei will face center-left Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the runoff after Massa garnered an unexpectedly strong 37%.

Bullrich's endorsement has been compared to conservative German Chancellor Franz von Papen's enabling Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to take office in 1933 - upon which Hitler staged the Reichstag Fire and ruled as dictator.

von Papen became a top Nazi official in the bargain.