Peronists will have a majority in the Senate and remain as the first minority in the Chamber
Douglas Gavras-On Sunday night (7), had in the province of Buenos Aires his greatest electoral defeat since taking over Casa Rosada in 2023. Peronism, which the Argentine president promised to sweep from the map, had his first great victory after the failure of the government of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
With the votes calculated, Peronism, which has the provincial governor, Axel Kicillof, its main exponent, obtained 47.28% of the total votes (3.82 million); Milei’s political force, freedom advances, which competed with the Pro (Republican proposal of former President Mauricio Macri), got 33.71% (2.724 million votes).
It was the first time since the return of democracy in Argentina that the most important province of the country had legislative elections of half of its presidential term separately from the national elections, which take place on October 26, in a new test for Casa Rosada.
Milei, who two months ago promised to rock the province and the closing of the campaign spoke in a technical draw, ended almost 14 points behind, a result that surprised even the peronists and made him admit “clear defeat”.
The advantage of the peronists was guaranteed with the victory of districts 1 and 3, which make up the so -called Bonaerense Conurban (the grouping of municipalities surrounding the city of Buenos Aires). The capital of Argentina is not part of the province that has the same name and had already voted in May.
The distribution of chairs does not necessarily coincide with total votes, as the minimum necessary to be elected varies in each district. On Sunday, some of them chose only deputies and others only senators.
Peronists will have a majority in the Senate and remain as the first minority in the House, although Milei’s strength has grown in both houses. In the Provincial Senate, Peronism currently has 21 chairs and will be 24; The alliance of Freedom advances and pro is 12 and will go to 15. In the House, the peronists have 38 and will be 39; Millets and Macritists have 24 and now they get 31.
UCR – We are Buenos Aires had 5.26% or 425 thousand votes, losing nine seats in the House and 4 in the Senate; The left front (4.37% or 353.3 thousand votes) will be able to keep its two deputies.
Mileism had its image worn shortly before voting by a case of alleged corruption involving the president’s sister, Karina Milei, after the release of audios of a former government employee pointing out that she would benefit from a corruption scheme in the purchase of medicines for people with disabilities.
Milei, who expected to reach provincial and national elections in October, with the flag of inflation fall also came to the election with negative data on the economy, such as stagnation and fall in the last months of economic activity and exchange interventions.
The strategy of Peronism, in turn, was to compete with names that occupy important positions in the province. In the first district – it groups municipalities in the North Zone of Greater Buenos Aires, such as Tigre, Vicente López and San Isidro- The Senate list was headed by the Minister of Infrastructure and Public Services of Kicillof, Gabriel Katopodis, and got five vacancies.
In the third, the southern part of Conurban and where peronists are historically stronger (there are La Matanza, Lanús and Lomas de Zamora, where Milei’s caravan was received with stones during the campaign), Kicillof’s deputy, Verónica Magario, ran up ten chairs.
Even in districts where Peronism traditionally has more difficulty, such as the fourth (in the interior of the country, in cities such as Junin and Hipólito Yrigoyen), the governor’s strength came out first.
The milletists took the front in the fifth district (Tandil, Pinamar Villa Gesell), winning three places in the Senate, and the sixth to the Chamber (Bahía Blanca, Salliqueló, Saavedra), winning five places.
“No doubt in the political level today we had a clear defeat and if anyone wants to rebuild what should be done is to accept the results, we had an electoral setback,” said the president, recognizing the defeat.
The decision to separate the provincial elections came from Kicillof, which was therefore friction with Cristina Kirchner, whom he was minister. With yesterday’s result, the governor imposes himself as one of the main names of the opposition. In the act of celebration, in La Plata, he made a hard speech against Milei.
“The numbers explained to Milei that he can no longer govern hate, with insults. That people with disabilities can no longer be abandoned,” the governor said. “They told him that he has to stop insulting democracy, federalism and our constitution.”
Cristina – which is under house arrest and planned to apply for a provincial deputy place, but lost his political rights with confirmation of his conviction to six years in prison – sent a message to militancy. “They have decided to stop a president who doesn’t seem to understand that he needs to rule for everyone. I hope this popular pronouncement will help him understand that he can’t hold his office as he does.”
