Argentina’s economy minister Sergio Massa has won the first round of presidential elections, in a victory for the centre-left populist coalition over libertarian challenger Javier Milei.
With 96 per cent of votes counted, Massa, who hails from the country’s Peronist movement, won 36.5 per cent, against 30 per cent for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party (LLA). Patricia Bullrich, the candidate for the mainstream centre-right opposition bloc Juntos por el Cambio (JxC), received 23.9 per cent.
Massa and Milei will advance to a run-off on November 19. The elimination of JxC, which had been seen as the ideological middle ground between LLA and the Peronists and was the favourite of most investors and business leaders, sets the stage for a polarising second-round campaign.