The former president of the Government Mariano Rajoy has shown his support for the presidential candidate for La Libertad Avanza, Javier Milei, in the second round of the Argentine elections to be held on November 19 and has supported a manifesto with eight other former international leaders and the writer Mario Vargas Llosa in which he defends that the ultraliberal is the "hope for change" in the face of the "Kirchnerist space" represented by the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, of Unión por la Patria.
The signatories have pointed out that Kirchnerism has "hegemonized" the political life of Argentina during the 21st century and now aspires to obtain "a fifth term" with Massa, the candidate being the Minister of Economy who has led the country to "an inflation of triple digits, record poverty over 40% and unemployment that is barely disguised by welfare and social plans.
"Massa represents the continuity of a failed corporate economic model and institutions that, instead of allowing Argentina to grow alongside its neighboring countries, have kept it in permanent stagnation for months," criticized the statement, which has reiterated that Massa's economic policies have been "rampant inflation, widespread poverty and the economic anguish of millions of Argentines who see their standard of living collapsing daily."
The statement, shared by La Libertad Avanza, the space led by Milei, has been signed by former presidents Mauricio Macri (Argentina); Iván Duque and Andrés Pastrana (Colombia); Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox (Mexico); Mariano Rajoy (Spain); Jorge Quiroga (Bolivia); Sebastián Piñera (Chile); Luis Fortuño (Puerto Rico) and the Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa.
Along these lines, the former presidents have emphasized that Massa's policy "starkly proposes the confusion of State-Government-Party, using all the mechanisms, organizations and economic resources that should be at the service of citizens as a battering ram against the opposition." . "As a bargaining chip for clientelism and as a beachhead for his militancy, a version of La Cámpora that revolves around him," he compared.
He also reproaches that Massa's project "is nothing more than the original of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner: achieving political hegemony by dint of budget and punishment of the opposition."
Likewise, regarding the international level, the signatories have regretted that 'Kirchnerism' has associated Argentina "with the worst governments on the planet"; the "regional dictatorships" of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, in addition to "allowing the entry of narcocriminal gangs that have settled in the country, putting the State's law enforcement forces in check," as they have denounced.
However, the former presidents have assured that Javier Milei's option, despite the "many differences" that separate him from the candidate, believes in "the ideas of freedom and has a very accurate diagnosis of the country's economic problem." "It has managed to gain the support of a good part of the voters of Together for Change, especially based on the express support that several of its main references have given it," they have highlighted, while defending that "it represents the hope of "change versus the continuity of the 'Kirchnerist' model."
"The only way out for Argentina is with political and economic freedom, respect for the rule of law and private property, and with the rules of the game of liberal democracy, the social market economy, social justice and modernity," they assessed. "It is our hope and desire that Argentines democratically eradicate at the polls the model that ties them to populism, economic backwardness and political authoritarianism and, finally, opt for change towards freedom, progress and justice," they concluded.
