(7 Miradas) The phrase that best suits these calculations is the one of Ian Fleming when he described the James Bond novels: “they are beyond the probable, but not beyond the impossible.”

By Carlos Fara

(7 Miradas) 

From looking at what happened and why the depth of the FF (Fernández-Fernández) victory could not be measured, we’re moving on to help answering the million-dollar question: can this be reversed? 

Let´s consider three factors in which the hopes of the government were high:

 1. That there was more participation than in the 2015 primary,

2. That the “cordón centro” responded well (Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Córdoba and Mendoza) to equate the loss in the province of Buenos Aires, and

3. That the fear of Cristina’s return was stronger than the fear of economic adjustment.

None of the three factors happened, so now they need to shuffle and turn around.

In what does the government seem to trust now?

1. The natural increase in participation between the primaries (PASO) and the general election, as happened in 2015 and 2017;

2. Greater polarization via dilution of the anti-K vote that was fragmented in the primary (voters of Lavagna, Espert and Gómez Centurión);

3. Recover middle-class votes via government’s announcements;

4. Recover votes from people who would have given a warning to the government, but who won’t necessarily discharge him from his position.

To sum up, under the assumption that the FF touched their roof and could no longer receive votes (obviously this hypothesis favors the calculations of the government):

• In the first round of 2015, 2 million people, who did not attend the PASO, went to vote, which caused that the primary picture changed;
• On that first shift the three main candidates increased their votes, especially Macri (1.810.000), and then Massa (750.000);
• A greater polarization is now the current scenario, so let’s assume that 2 million are added up again and assigned to Macri, and a possible drop in contested blank votes is also granted (200.000 votes);
• That would give a share of 26.720.000, with some 25.800.000 positive votes (which are the ones that are of interest now);
• In this context, the FF would get 45% and Macri – Pichetto 39%;
• Then they should liquefy other opposition votes in favor of the president, and would see if the government’s announces have an effect, and a reissue of the appeal to fear a return of CFK;
• With all that they get to the blessed second round.

An optimist would say: “Yes, we can!”. Mathematically the calculation is beautiful, but…it obviates at least two issues:

1. That there won’t be such a strong economic turbulence that people ask for another storm pilot; and

2. That the majority does not believe that the election already is over (with Alberto surely being the future president), so that they have an incentive to vote this time (if they hadn’t in the PASO), or to change the vote towards Macri.

Sounds hard, doesn’t it?

Translation from Spanish by Kim Radestock

Source: 7 Miradas (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Carlos Fara

Secretary

President of Carlos Fara & Asociados since 1991, has been a political consultant for more than 30 years. Public opinion, campaigning and government communications expert, he has received several awards. Among them, the Aristotle Prize for Excelency in 2010 at the year’s Dream Team, where the ten best political consultants in the world are recognized. He has worked in more than 160 campaigns in Argentina and Latin America and is the former president of the Latin American Association of Political Consultants (ALaCoP). He also was the first president of the Argentinian Association of Political Consultants (ASaCoP) and a board member at the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC). He wrote the first book in spanish dedicated exclusively to political consulting “How to be a political consultant?”. The book was awarded with the Best Book award from ALaCoP.