Almost 80 percent of Argentinians reject their Peronist government, with the economy being its Achilles heel. Still, in yet another surprising turn of events, Economy Minister Sergio Massa took a comfortable pole position in the country’s first-round presidential election on Sunday, improving upon his party’s third place in recent primaries, despite presiding over skyrocketing inflation and a run on the Argentinian peso.
The center-left Peronist candidate secured almost 37 percent of the vote, falling just three points shy of what would have been a staggering first-round win. He will now have to face a runoff against far-right libertarian economist Javier Milei, who finished second with nearly 30 percent.
Mr. Milei began the day as the favorite after also totaling 30 percent of the vote in Argentina’s August 13 primaries, which are usually the best barometer to predict the final election winner. But his original lead was slim, only two points over the center-right led by former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and three points over Mr. Massa, meaning that any of the three candidates had a chance of reaching the runoff.
In the end, Mr. Massa’s centrism proved an attractive contrast versus two hard-right options, which overlapped in many ways, despite Argentina’s clear ideological right turn over the last decade.
Andrei Roman, chief executive of Atlas Intel, one of the few pollsters that had Mr. Massa in first place, said high abstention rates in the August primaries were the main reason for Sunday’s surprising results. About 78 percent of Argentinians went to the polls this weekend, eight percentage points higher than in August.
“We will call for a national unity government to build a strong national industry over those who want indiscriminate...
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