On October 1, the presidential debate will be held in Argentina, and it will take place at the National University in the province of Santiago del Estero. On Wednesday, September 20, we have already observed the first debate, how the five vice presidential candidates spoke, Victoria Villarruel for Libertad Avanza, Luis Petri for Together for Change, Agustín Rossi for Unión Por la Patria, Florencio Randazzo for Hacemos Unidos and Nicolás del Caño for the Left and Workers’ Front.
Vulgarity: throughout the debate there was a lot of chicanery, mockery, inconsistencies, low blows, shouts and insults. From “we propose a path full of love and pride to the path of adaptation, it is one of those who say that Argentina is a rude country” or “Villarruel reminds me of Astiz because he is a infiltrator of democracy” of Rossi, a “save me from asking stupid questions” from the mouth of the libertarian candidate who also reported that of his four opponents “they have 76 years of residence in the State” while Rossi yells at him that he is defending the dictatorship and he, without denying it. , only reiterated that he was defending the victims of terrorism.
Petri tells us very calmly that Argentina has been kidnapped for 20 years and that it is not possible to negotiate with the kidnappers, while Del Caño is angry because the banks are making money, and because on top of that the IMF is asking for more devaluation, and because all the competing candidates are accomplices of the IMF. Randazzo kept his demeanor while telling us that if we knew Schiaretti and what he did in Córdoba we would vote for him as a candidate.
Zero proposals: nothing is said about the political programs of each party force, we listen to what we already know, live and suffer; about the terrible level of inflation, the serious problems of insecurity and the social disorder described by the four opposition candidates to us, while the official candidate told us how with Massa they will explain to us “the path of economic growth with social inclusion, with more wages for workers to support our families so that our children grow up in a safe and warm environment.” Villarruel reminds us that “Rossi really lives in an unknown galaxy,” as the yelling and screaming continues everywhere.
Three clear strategies: in this fight, Villarruel chooses to go hard against Rossi and Rossi chooses to go hard against Villarruel. Thus rudeness of all calibers came and went, under a clear strategy in which La Libertad Avanza and Unión por la Patria decided to continue polarization and continue to ignore Together for Change. In some moments, Villarruel criticizes the group of four competitors (who parasitized the State for 76 years) or Rossi is heard blaming Macri for the external debt, but the consistent and bold strategy is intelligent presented by the libertarian and the official candidate: that the continuation of the polarization between them in sad tones will give good results in the elections of Argentina 2023.
Although the internal elections made it clear that the extremists won (Milei got the most votes, Bullrich defeated Rodríguez Larreta and Massa, the version of nac&pop, almost tied with the previous two), according to the logic of the previous elections, we can imagine that The centripetal forces will act in a general contest, and Together for Change from the most reasonable post-PASO moderation can attract voters from both extremes and increase their chances of winning.
Under this possible premise, La Libertad Avanza seems to conclude that it is easier to win a runoff against Unión por la Patria and Unión por la Patria concludes that it is easier to win a runoff against La Libertad Avanza . To the strategies of Villarruel and Rossi, we must add a third that is also clear in the debate, that of the candidate Petri, who in just a few moments dared to throw a couple of disagreements in La Libertad Avanza, in when he recited to us that “Sarmiento said that all the problems of the country are solved by the low public school banks” and that we need quality public schools and not to privatize them, or when he warned that “Milei’s chainsaw plan has turned into scissors”.
During the rest of the debate he dedicated himself completely to emphasizing that “without euphemism, to end inflation, we must first end Kirchnerism, which is a machine for creating poverty and punishing those who produce it country,” that “Kirchnerism defends criminals and does not protect victims”, and that “Kirchnerism burns ships with Argentines inside”, and that “Kirchnerism robs you of taxes, robs you of inflation and robbing you through corruption…”.
Together for Change chose to polarize Unión por la Patria, because, under the assumption (confirmed again by the results of continuous polls to be very wrong) that La Libertad Avanza continues to lead, Together for Change and Unión por la Patria continues to seek it. second place in the world, to reach the second round of the election.
PS: When it came time to choose who to face in a debate, Villarruel chose Rossi, Rossi chose Villarruel, and Petri chose Rossi.
