The leftist Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS) urged their supporters not to vote for far-right economist Javier Milei in the November 19 run-off. However, the communiqué published on Monday also said PTS would not endorse Economy Minister Sergio Massa — the ruling coalition’s presidential candidate — either.

“Of course, we are calling on people not to vote for Milei, but from the left, we can’t give any kind of political or electoral support to Massa,” said a communiqué released on Monday.

The press release also highlighted that millions of people voted for Massa so that Milei wouldn’t win “even though they know of [Massa’s] political history, his ties with the economic power and his right-wing opinions on several topics.’”

“We understand that attitude, but we don’t agree with it since it would contribute to strengthening an option contrary to the workers’ interests and of continued submission to the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” read the press release. 

While they criticized Milei’s dollarization and privatization proposals, they also said Massa “is the main person to blame for the cuts that are sinking the workers’ quality of life” pointing to Argentina’s economic situation and his ongoing tenure as economy minister. 

“If Massa wins, he will try to form a strong government alongside right-wing sectors to carry out the program mandated by the IMF and economic powers.” 

Massa and Milei are competing in a run-off given neither won the the minimum 45% of votes (or 40% with a ten-point advantage) in the October 22 general elections. Milei came first in the August primaries with 30% and got the same percentage of votes in the general election. After coming second in the primaries, Massa surpassed Milei with 36.6% of the vote, having picked up 3.5 million votes more than in August.

Frente de Izquierda de los Trabajadores-Unidad (FIT-U), the coalition PTS belongs to, got 2.7% of the vote in the general elections, with Bregman and Del Caño as presidential and vice presidential candidates. 

More than 2% of the electoral roll cast a blank vote in the general elections.

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Juntos por el Cambio

Leaders within the third most-voted coalition Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) have either similarly condemned both presidential candidates or explicitly supported Milei.

The opposition bloc is facing growing in-fighting after PRO head and former JxC presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich decided to publicly support Milei without consulting the rest of the coalition members. Buenos Aires city Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, also a PRO member, expressed his surprise at the developing partnership and said both Massa and Milei “are very bad for Argentines.”

The Unión Civica Radical (UCR) party leaders held a conference announcing that “neither of [the candidates] can guarantee a future of progress for Argentina,” lambasting Bullrich and former president Mauricio Macri for supporting the far-right libertarian.

“A portion of Juntos por el Cambio sadly has been partners with Massa for a long time,”  said Macri in a radio interview with Cadena 3 on Monday. He doubled down on criticisms of the UCR, claiming they don’t have the authority to say JxC is broken — as was contended in their press conference — and expressly supporting Milei.

“[Some UCR] deputies in Congress voted several times together with the Kirchnerist block, against Juntos por el Cambio, and they maintain that relation,” the former president said. “They have every right to do so, but they should stop hiding behind neutrality while attacking Milei.”

Macri also claimed the libertarian congressman has agreed to “tone down” some of his positions.

PRO and UCR are two of the main parties that make up the opposition bloc, with several of JxC’s governors set to take office in December belonging to the UCR. 

—with information from Télam