Sergio Massa’s meeting with Lula, on Monday, August 28, lasted more than two hours. Although they talked about central issues for the bilateral relationship of both countries -such as financing for Argentine imports and the country’s entry into the BRICS-, the issue that appeared again and again in the talk was another. One that has a first and last name. “Sergio, you do what you have to do, do what is necessary, everything within your reach. But whatever happens, Javier Milei cannot win the elections”, the Brazilian told the Unión por la Patria candidate.
The tone, bordering on fear, is not at all surprising coming from Lula. Daniel Scioli recounted, in an interview with the newspaper Perfil, that in his first meeting with him in Brazil, the former union leader told him that he was following the rise of the libertarian with concern. That was in 2021. Now it would seem that his worst fears could be confirmed.
Last bullet. Massa picked up the glove that the Brazilian threw at him. He returned to the country and announced a package of economic measures that several in the Government had been demanding. This pocket reinforcement with a fixed sum of 60,000 pesos for workers was complemented with a series of tax relief provisions according to the different sectors (monotributistas, retirees, SMEs, etc.).
That is the reflection of a new idea to face the last leg of the campaign. The strategy is no longer to have the same discourse and focus for each social group, but to work on them in a differentiated way, to which they seek to add a Massa tour of the territories. This echoes what they hope will be the magic number for October: they maintain in the massista plants that “14 percent” of the 7,352,244 Argentines who voted for Milei can be recovered, voters who in 2019 bet the Frente de Todos and that now they could change their position again. And that if that happens, the Minister of Economy has a chance of being competitive in an eventual second round.
For now, it appears to be nothing more than a statement of hope. Especially if you see the reaction of the governors to the fixed sum that they had to deliver to municipal workers: 14 provinces have already rejected it. Among them, four stand out who in the papers make up the first line of Massa’s candidacy (Gustavo Bordet from Entre Ríos, Raúl Jalil from Catamarca, Juan Manzur from Tucumán and Sergio Zilliotto from la Pampa), plus others whom the Government considered allies, such as Oscar Herrera from Misiones and Omar Perotti from Santa Fe. The case of the latter is even more singular: he declared that in a runoff between Milei and Bullrich he would vote for the libertarian, which further increased doubts about his figure. As reported in NEWS, days after the PASO, governors and mayors from all over the country began to contact Milei’s entourage to organize the distribution of shared ballots (hers as president and that of her local legislative candidates) for October. The disbandment is alarming for the ruling party.
To do? The big drama, both for the government and for the Bullrich campaign, is that nobody seems to be very clear about what approach to take to approach the libertarian at the polls. A wild idea that has been turning around, on which Massa’s communication team insists a lot, is to avoid attacking him head-on and getting into side issues, such as the consequences of his plan on the economy. However, this idea suffers resistance from the coalition itself: Gabriela Cerruti, in the middle of a wave of looting, released a video blaming Milei with her name and surname. Massa, say those who speak to him, exploded with rage when he saw that clip.
Another strategy is to increase the organic presence in social networks. Massa’s parody videos -he as the central character of Jurassic Park, or as if he had been the inventor of the wheel- are on the rise, while the idea of ”bananizing” the libertarian’s campaign was installed among Peronist influencers, insist with the idea that with him in power the country would become a “banana republic”.
On the political level, however, the strategy is less clear. Alberto Fernández comes, in silence, picking up the phone to insist that governors put the campaign on their shoulders. And also for them to disburse the fixed sum: “It’s not a little money plan,” he launched. Cristina remains silent, an idea that for some priests in the campaign is positive. “If she speaks now, we are fried,” they say, because of the bad image that part of the country has of her. It seems that Lula’s fears are on the way to being confirmed.
