The pearls of the runoff between Milei and Massa: the laughter of Máximo Kirchner and the elected representative who came to vote ahead of time

Prosecutor and former vice presidential candidate

At 8:36, Luis Petri published a message on his social networks: “Starting the inspection of a historic day! Vote freely! Today Argentina Changes! The post is accompanied by a photo: him sitting at table 2905 of the Simón Bolívar School in San Martín, in the province of Mendoza, along with others in charge of guaranteeing the normal course of the vote. Thus, the former candidate for vice president running with Patricia Bullrich for Together for Change, presented himself as a prosecutor at his voting table for a runoff in which his office already expressed his support for the candidate Javier Milei de la Libertad. Keep it up.

Petri had already been a candidate for governor of Mendoza, facing Alfredo Cornejo. Despite having lost in the PASO, his good choice helped him position himself. Months later, he won the PASO in which he faced the formula composed of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Gerardo Morales, in the company of Patricia Bullrich, who on Sunday, October 22, 2023 obtained 23.85% of the votes in the elections general.

“Thanks for the compliment”

Máximo Kirchner voted at School No. 50 in Tolosa, where he arrived early: at 8:45 he had already left the dark room. When he left school, the cameras were waiting for him. He answered all the journalists’ questions. “I am one of those who believe that more people have to vote. What I want most is for as many people to express themselves,” she said, alluding to the fact that this Monday is a holiday and many decided to go tourism instead of exercising their civic right.

“With great hope, with desire, we elected a president for four years who is no small feat, someone who has to lead our country and take care of it. With that conviction with which I always came to vote, I come today,” he said when asked how he approached voting this Sunday. He also wished, “May it be a day in peace, with joy, without provocations, the votes will be counted calmly as has happened since ’83″. “With this system all political forces have won,” he stated to dispel the presumptions of fraud promoted from positions close to Milei.

The last question unleashed laughter from the national deputy. An A24 journalist asked him: “Do you believe in national unity, Nés…?”. The confusion with Néstor, the name of his father and president of the country between 2003 and 2007, caused Máximo to immediately laugh, and he thanked him for the praise. And based on the question, he answered with an incomplete sentence: “It’s called Union for the Homeland…”.

The deputy who arrived half an hour earlier

The elected representative of the province of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza, Lilia Lemoine, arrived at her voting center half an hour before the elections opened. At seven thirty in the morning, she showed up at the Villa Santa Rita school in Buenos Aires and started to get in line while the educational establishment was still closed. Upon noticing her presence at 7:28, the journalists quickly surrounded her and an impromptu press conference was held. “Why did you come to vote so early?” she was asked. And she answered: “I came to see if any prosecutor was missing”.

Lemoine said that since he lives right in front of the school, he decided to go to his polling place earlier because he knows that “if a prosecutor doesn’t show up, the first one in line is the one who has to replace him.” He said that they are being careful with the inspection, especially “if ballots are missing or torn.” “I volunteered with people from our team to go around the province distributing ballots, helping where necessary because there is a probability that it will be that way,” he said before calling on people to go to the polls in this runoff.

Another Sunday of voting in Argentina, another Sunday that will be colored by oddities, curiosities, situations outside the protocol, where sensations, rituals, dynamics are repeated, both of the voters and of the political leaders. There will be no shortage of citizens who are dressed up or party leaders who commit some peculiarity in front of the polls and in front of the cameras. The election that will define the next president of the country for the next four years -a runoff that is presumed tight between Sergio Massa, candidate for Unión por la Patria, and Javier Milier, candidate for La Libertad Avanza- will simultaneously have a compilation of anecdotal and curious, random, decontextualized events. The color of the elections as a background to the act of voting, what politicians like to say is a “celebration of democracy.”