Far-right populist Javier Milei takes shock lead in Argentina primary election

Summary:

• Far-right populist Javier Milei shocks with over 30% vote in Argentina primary election.
• Voters express frustration with economic struggles, inflation, and poverty in the country.
• Milei's outsider status and different approach attract voters seeking change.
• Questions arise about Milei's ability to govern without strong party support.
• Three main candidates, including Milei, advance to the general election in October.

Even Javier Mele looks like he can't believe it himself. Predict it to take maybe 20, he grabs more than 30% of the vote. Brash, populist, far right. So are we looking at Argentina's next president after this primary, which is in effect a dress rehearsal for October's general election.

Today we are the most voted force because we are the true opposition. We are the only ones who want to make a real change. Because remember, a different Argentina is impossible with the same old people, with the same old people who have always failed, with the same old people who have been failing for a hundred years.

And that's the appeal to voters fed up with both centre-right and left coalitions who for years have delivered economic perma-crisis to this vast country. Finding inflation tough here in the UK? Try living in Argentina, 115% inflation and successive governments delivering a massive slow-motion fiscal crash. And all of that compounded by the drought earlier this year, which has crippled the agricultural sector. 40% of Argentines officially below the poverty line. On top of all that, currency controls further enraging hard-pushed voters. So for many, it was just time to punish all that failure. It's simply a punishment vote against this and previous governments, said this voter.

Most people are just tired of all the others, he says. They're all the same. This guy's an outsider with something different. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Unlike Trump or Bolsonaro, Millet is something of a one-man band. Showman and popular, sure. But in power, without a powerful party elected around him, could he get much done? Even some of his supporters acknowledged that.

It's a concern we voters have, if he's able or not to do all the things he's saying he's going to do. But at the same time, that's what took him to do such a great election. Perhaps that explains why Millet has been dialing down the rhetoric about abolishing the central bank and the peso in favour of the dollar in recent days. And just three points now divide Millet from the two traditional parties. Here's the centre-right, Patricia Bullrich, now their presidential candidate. I want to thank all the people who chose to have security, to have reasonable taxes, tranquility, certainties and end to uncertainties, a government that has clear, lasting rules. For the ruling centre-left, Sergio Massa insisting only they can stabilise the national finances.

Because we are sure that in the Argentina of the future, work, production, the defence of our rights and public education have to be unchanging values, values that will not change whoever governs. All three candidates now go forward to the general election in October. Traditional parties knowing there's now a new kid on the block, loud, rude even and popular.