On May 18, legislative elections were held in Buenos Aires. Thirty of the 60 seats in the city legislature were renewed for a four-year term. At the ballot box, voters faced 17 different options. Only five ended up achieving representation, including the Workers Left Front — Unity (FIT-U) ticket.
Provincial elections were previously held in the cities Jujuy, Salta, Chaco, and San Luis, all on May 11. Low voter turnout marked some elections as a crisis of representation deepened throughout the country. Few voters turned out because these were midterm elections, as well as because of the unusual staggered electoral calendar and the elimination of primaries — previously denounced by Left Voice’s sister organization, the Party of Socialist Workers (PTS).
The primaries were eliminated thanks to maneuvering by all traditional and capitalist parties in Argentina. This deprived smaller, independent, and class-struggle-oriented parties of public advertising funds and the airtime and space to present their platforms to the public. Furthermore, most provinces chose to decouple their local elections from the national elections in October. Ostensibly, the motivation behind these decisions was to eliminate unnecessary waste of public funds and to allow each province to focus on local issues — avoiding a polarizing national context in which these provincial blocs have often played a collaborative role supporting President Javier Milei’s legislative agenda. In practice, the elimination of primaries and the staggered electoral calendar combined to benefit only the ruling parties of each province and those that could count on major donors and corporate backing.
Jujuy
Along with Salta, Chaco, and San Luis, the lithium- and mineral-rich northern province of Jujuy was the first to vote on Sunday, May 11. Jujuy is home to the largest Indigenous population in Argentina. It has been called “a laboratory for the nation” thanks to its 2023 constitutional reform conflict. Then-governor Gerardo Morales, of the traditional center-right Radical Civic Union (UCR), pushed through controversial anti-democratic reforms without popular consultation, flagrantly violating conventions for Indigenous and tribal rights and provincial and national constitutional protections. The conflict saw left-wing parties, labor organizations, and Indigenous rights groups face off against mining interests, police repression, and the provincial government in ever-increasing tensions over extractivism, pollution, autonomy, and basic legal protections. The conflict in Jujuy foreshadowed both the privatization and militarization methods that are hallmarks of the Milei era.
Sunday’s election saw the Workers’ Left Front-Unity (FIT-U), an electoral front made up of four Trotskyist parties, win two new seats in the provincial legislature, now occupying a total of five. The campaign was led by PTS deputy Alejandro Vilca, a municipal garbage collector and the first Indigenous person elected to the Argentinian congress. Despite lacking the powerful party apparatus and corporate backing of traditional parties and having to run a grassroots campaign, the Workers Left Front — Unity managed not only to increase its legislative representation and vote tally to 8.5 percent, but also to gain a council seat in San Salvador de Jujuy, the province’s capital, where they beat the Peronists, doubling their support with 12 percent of the votes.
Chaco, Salta, San Luis
Just over 52 percent of the electorate participated in the elections in Chaco Province, 21 percent less than the election two years ago and down 14 percent from the midterms in 2021. A coalition ticket between the ruling UCR and Milei’s Liberty Advances (LLA) won eight out of 16 seats. In a major crisis, the Peronists, who garnered 43 percent of the vote in 2021 and 41 percent of the vote in 2023, won only 33 percent this time around, picking up six seats. Another Peronist satellite coalition secured an additional two seats. No left-wing coalition presented itself for elections in Chaco. The Workers Party (PO), an FIT-U member, participated without the rest of the front partners, winning 1.78 percent of the vote and failing to win any seats.
Governor Gustavo Sáenz’s center-right regionalist Peronist-adjacent ruling party won in Salta, where the Left presented itself on a split ticket due to the departure of the Socialist Workers Movement (MST) from the Workers’ Left Front in the province. As a result, neither ticket surpassed 5 percent of the vote. Once again, the largest share of registered voters chose abstention.
Another center-right ruling party win was secured in the western province of San Luis, where Peronism came in second and two libertarian tickets came in a distant third and fourth. Voter turnout was low, Peronism lost significant backing compared to previous elections, and the Left secured only 1.2 percent of the vote.
Buenos Aires
Official results in the capital, Buenos Aires, followed many of the trends observed in the elections on May 11. Almost half the electorate (around 47 percent) did not show up to the polls in a historically politicized city with a strong democratic tradition. This marks the lowest voter turnout in the history of the city since the return of democracy in 1983. In a highly charged and polarized atmosphere, voters could not be compelled to vote for any of the 17 lists. Sunday’s big winner was abstention. All political forces lost votes in absolute numbers compared to 2021 and 2023.
The other significant story for the city of Buenos Aires in this election cycle is the collapse of the ruling party coalition tied to former president Mauricio Macri, Republican Proposal (PRO). His cousin, Jorge Macri, has been chief of government of the autonomous capital since December 2023. Their coalition, which has governed the city for decades, achieved the worst result in its history: a mere 15.92 percent, coming in third place. Most neighborhoods that have historically supported the Macri-led coalition since the beginning of the century turned instead to Milei’s LLA, effectively hegemonizing the right side of the political spectrum. Some votes (8.08 percent) were siphoned off by ex-Chief of Government Horacio Larreta’s “We’re Back Buenos Aires,” which came in fourth place.
First place went to LLA, with presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni at the head of the ticket. The party, which achieved success at the national level before finding its footing in its city of origin, saw its base of support shift from the working-class southern neighborhoods to the wealthier neighborhoods in the north. When an irascible Milei first appeared on the scene midway through Macri’s presidential term, various powers showed interest in spotlighting the outsider — albeit for opposing reasons. Billionaire business magnate and media mogul Eduardo Eurnekian first highlighted Milei during a personal dispute with then-president Mauricio Macri. On the other hand, Peronism extended a helping hand to Milei and his new party in an electoral calculus meant to split the right-wing vote and alienate moderates — similar to Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 “pied-piper” strategy that helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency. Meanwhile, the inner circle around Mauricio Macri and Minister Patricia Bullrich believed they could use Milei to shift political discourse to the right, hoping that Milei’s often abrasive and unconventional style, along with his lack of an extensive party apparatus, would allow him to move the Overton window rightward without reaping a significant share of votes. A look at Sunday’s electoral map, neighborhood by neighborhood, illustrates how much of each strategy has come to fruition.
Second place went to the Peronist Alliance “Now Is The Time Buenos Aires,” headed by moderate Leandro Santoro. In 2023, Santoro had asked opposition voters to cast their vote for him to defeat Macri — only to step down before the run-off election. Peronism won 27.35 percent of the vote, compared to 32 percent in 2023.
The only other alliance to achieve representation in these elections was the Workers Left Front — Unity, and it was the only one not backed by current or former national, provincial, or municipal ruling governments. Considering the adverse circumstances surrounding these elections, it is noteworthy that the FIT-U is one of the forces to come out the other side with legislative representation.
Some tickets that did not manage to pass the 3 percent vote threshold took up as much as 73 percent of all airtime on streaming broadcasts in the month leading up to elections. Along with economic disadvantage, the campaign had to deal with accusations of antisemitism against the head of the ticket, Vanina Biasi (PO), simply because she expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemned the ongoing genocide carried out by Israel. Like in all other provinces, the FIT-U had to run a grassroots campaign. It was not enough, however, to maintain the two seats they had won in 2021, when Myriam Bregman (PTS) achieved a historic 8 percent in that district. Over the next few days, internal debates will take place regarding why voter discontent was not channeled to the combative Left, how the dynamics between the four parties that make up the FIT-U affected electoral outcomes, and how to strengthen workers’ organizations throughout the second half of Milei’s term.
Of the 30 seats in play, 11 went to LLA (+5), 10 to Peronism (+2), five to Macri’s PRO (-1), three to first-timers and PRO offshoot We’re Back BA led by Larreta, and one to the Workers Left Front —Unity (-1). All other tickets (some of which comprise various Peronist and Macrist satellites) failed to achieve any representation.
The main political message to emerge from this round of elections, across the map but especially in the capital, is voter apathy. After Milei’s ascendancy to power on a wave of discontent with both traditional bourgeois coalitions that have governed Argentina since the return to democracy, large sectors of the population are now disillusioned with seeing him govern using the same methods and aligning with the very politicians that he previously denounced as belonging to a “corrupt caste.” In a country where voting is mandatory by law, and where historic averages of participation comfortably surpass 70 percent, half of the electorate did not see the use in participating and feel disgusted with the palace politics of parliamentary deliberation — totally alien to the needs and interests of the working masses. In the capital, no force emerged strengthened; even those who managed a strong showing (first and second place) could boast only muted celebrations. Voter abstention was highest in the poorer neighborhoods in the south, while Milei’s party had its strongest support in the wealthier northern neighborhoods — highlighting the clear class divide of these elections.
Upcoming Elections
Whether the trends observed during this election cycle so far hold true for upcoming elections later in the year will be seen in Misiones on June 8, Santa Fe and Formosa on June 29, and the Buenos Aires province (the most populous in the country and a Peronist stronghold) on September 7. National legislative elections, in which half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of Senate seats are at stake, are scheduled for October 26.
The date is highly anticipated since the massive $20 billion IMF loan accorded to Argentina earlier in the year was meant as a lifeline to infuse dollar reserves into the central bank and to help bolster support for Milei’s government — at least until the end of this electoral cycle. It remains to be seen whether Milei can contain inflationary pressures and increasing dissatisfaction over low wages and lack of public spending until then (or perhaps beyond the midterm elections). Milei’s initial response has been an aggressive move: implementing restrictions on the right to strike for vast sectors of industry and services by decree, along with removing tariffs on imported technology products that directly threaten the technology industry in the southernmost province of Tierra del Fuego. The affected sector workers have immediately ceased production and are striking (despite their union bureaucracy), demanding employment guarantees from their bosses.