Midterm elections in Argentina: new representatives elected in Buenos Aires (CABA)

Elections were held in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires on May 18. Half of the seats in the parliament of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires (CABA) were up for reelection. By-elections had already been held in several provinces of Argentina in the first few months of this year. For the far right, however, the election in the capital was not just another election like any other: La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the party of far-right politician Javier Milei, attempted to consolidate itself as a political force by placing Manuel Adorni, the president's spokesman, at the top of its electoral list. The central importance of Buenos Aires as the seat of political power in Argentina is also evident in the election campaign strategy. Posters with the slogan “ADORNI ES MILEI” were hung throughout the city.

From the perspective of the ruling party, confident of victory, the election result was a complete success. It received the most votes, brought eleven new representatives into parliament, and left both the Peronist/Kirchnerist Unión por la Patria and the neoliberal Propuesta Republicana (PRO) far behind. PRO is the party of former President Mauricio Macri, which has governed the city for 17 years, but now only ranks third and was only able to bring five new representatives into the Buenos Aires parliament. In addition, Ramiro Marra's historic conservative party Unión del Centro Democrático (UceDe) did not even reach the minimum required to win a seat in parliament. Marra is a former LLA representative who was expelled from the Liberal Party after disputes with Karina Milei.

Further conclusions can be drawn from this election. First, the low voter turnout was remarkable. In a city where more than 75 percent of eligible voters usually cast their ballots, only 53 percent voted this time, with two percent not voting for any party, casting so-called “votos en blanco.” At the same time, the Peronist candidate won in eight out of ten districts where the majority of the population belongs to the working class and where Milei had won in the presidential elections at the end of 2023. How can the low voter turnout and the shift in part of Milei's voter base be explained? Many Argentine political analysts see a possible onset of social saturation with regard to the violent, cyberbullying, and Twitter-like style of interaction that characterized the election campaign. Others emphasize that party politics offers neither answers nor prospects for the future to a population that continues to suffer from the economic crisis.

Immediately after the elections, perhaps encouraged by the results, the government continued its attacks on the progressive camp. The Ministry of Justice decided to downgrade the Human Rights Secretariat, which had already been demoted from a ministry to a state secretariat, by another hierarchical level to a sub-secretariat (roughly equivalent to a department). This means a 40 percent cut in structural funding and a 30 percent reduction in staff for this institution, as well as a concrete deterioration in its ability to maintain measures related to the politics of memory.

The author, Gabriela Mitidieri, is a historian and works for the Argentine human rights organization Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS). You can read the original Spanish version of this text at NPLA.

Redacción: Ute Löhning