Right-wing candidate Patricia Bullrich is in third place in the polls for tomorrow's presidential election in Argentina, behind conservative Peronist Sergio Massa. Although at the beginning of this long campaign he was listed first in voting intentions, Bullrich gradually deflated as support for the far-right Javier Milei, the big favorite, increased.
At the age of 67, Bullrich is a very popular politician in Argentina and has been the subject of countless controversies due to his direct language and the fact that he never shirks questions from journalists. It is what we could consider a hawk within the broad ideological spectrum of Junts pel Canvi, the centre-right opposition coalition for which he is applying and which brings together, among other parties, the PRO (Republican Proposal) of ex-liberal president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), the historic Radical Civic Union (UCR) or Civic Coalition.
Argentines have an image of Bullrich that is summed up in his ability to bring order to a country that has been in disorder for decades. In fact, his campaign slogan is "An orderly country". A tough hand against crime or eradicating the chaos of the eternal pickets in the streets of Buenos Aires are two of her constant promises, although when she was Minister of Security during the four years of Macri's government she did neither one thing nor the other Although during his administration the pressure against organized crime and drug trafficking increased, and the police violently and amidst great controversy repressed some pickets - unlike the Kirchnerist policy of non-intervention -, the underlying problems did not change .
Sticking almost all her life in the official car, she had previously been a deputy in several legislatures. With the radical president Fernando de la Rúa (1999-2001) she was Minister of Labor (2000-2001) and of Social Security, the latter position in which she barely lasted thirteen days from November 2001, in which she had time of reducing pensions to retirees by 13%, which caused protests in a climate of unprecedented economic crisis that just a month later would lead to the corralito, 39 dead in the streets due to police repression and De la Rúa's resignation.
However, Bullrich's best-known trait is the ideological 180-degree turn she made in her life: she went from the military to the Peronist Youth (JP) and participated in the Montoneros, also a Peronist guerrilla group - although she denies it – to be placed on the right of the political spectrum, surpassed only by Milei.
Descendant of one of the lines of the Argentine oligarchy from the colony, his sister Julieta was the partner of Rodolfo Galimberti, one of the most murky leaders of Montoneros, who ended up linked to the right. In recent years, several journalistic investigations have confirmed that Bullrich was part of Montoneros – which was fed mainly by JP militants – and that he participated in at least two armed operations, two kidnappings. According to one of these reports, her nickname was Piba and she became the second lieutenant of the armed organization. In 1975, aged 19, she spent six months in prison for having made a political graffiti. With the arrival of the dictatorship, in 1976, he went underground and the following year he went into exile, living in Brazil, Mexico and Spain.
“I worry about Milei's ideas; they are bad and dangerous", said Bullrich on Thursday at the final campaign meeting in Lomas de Zamora, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, aware that he must win votes from the far-right to go to the second round. If not, Milei's victory could be sealed, considering that a good part of the anti-Peronists who vote for Bullrich would support the candidate who defends dollarization and an extreme cut of the welfare state.
In the mandatory primaries on August 13, Junts pel Canvi obtained 28% of the votes, adding those of Bullrich to his defeated rival, the moderate mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. However, for tomorrow's elections, only one survey reaches this percentage and the majority predicts the superiority of Massa, who reaches 30% in almost all polls, compared to 35%, at least, that are awarded to Milei .
