Javier Milei winning the primary elections was a scenario only imagined by the libertarian candidate and the small group of people who have accompanied him on his journey of recent times.
In just a few years Milei managed to become known throughout Argentina, an achievement that takes many politicians a lifetime. Whether he is a product of circumstance or a new fixture in the political landscape will be confirmed in October, but he can no longer be considered an outsider. His vehement and surprising stances can no longer be considered marginal; they are expressions of an important part of Argentine society, and in particular its youth. His chances of making it to the run-off for the presidency are increasing. This is no longer a wild calculation.
Milei got more votes with his one-man party than Argentina’s dominant alliances, without the resources and the territories where they govern. Elections can no longer be seen as being played out solely in the structures and hegemonic media. It is true that the figure of Milei is the child of the media and the journalists who interviewed him countless times over the last four years, but it is also true that he managed to connect with social spaces outside these traditional machines.
The candidate receiving the second-largest vote tally, Sergio Massa, finishing almost eight points behind the libertarian, but Juntos por el Cambio finished as the second-largest force.
Milei has taken La Libertad Avanza to the entire national territory, seeing triumphs in traditionally Peronist or Radical provinces. This situation has dynamited the entire library of work that concludes that territories have a predominantly party or class-based vote.
Other theories must also be considered in order to understand the PASO primary results of August 13. Argentina's chronic economic crisis has already affected society as a whole, and the events of the last election week have hit the whole country hard. Both aspects will be central in the new path that has opened towards the general elections on October 22.
*Sociologist (@cfdeangelis).
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