Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri said on Sunday that he will not be a presidential candidate in the country's October general elections, as the opposition coalition moves to confirm its candidates.
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The center-right Macri's decision to opt-out opens the door wider for other candidates of the opposition coalition "Together for Change," considered the front-runner against the incumbent Peronist-led leftist party of President Alberto Fernandez.
"I will not be a candidate in the next election," Macri said in a video posted on social media on Sunday. "I am convinced that we must expand the political space for the change that we initiated," added.
Although Macri had previously suggested he would not run for the October elections, other opposition members speculated he would still announce his candidacy in the midst of a prolonged economic crisis with 100% annual inflation, nearly half of Argentina's population has been thrust into poverty. The opposition coalition appears poised to garner more support than the ruling party, which has not yet defined its candidate amid major internal disputes between Fernandez and his Vice President Cristina Fernandez.
While Argentina is six months away from electing a president, the tension between presidential candidates is increasing, In an interview with the Argentinian radio show Modo Fontevichia in which Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez discussed his meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington, Fernandez called the opposition libertarian politician Javier Milei "a threat to democracy",
"Javier Milei is a threat to democracy, Hitler was voted in. Totalitarians use democracy to gain power and there are many examples in the history of mankind,"
"Libertad Avanza" coalition deputy and presidential candidate Milei responded to the accusation on Twitter, "With your words, you fall into the crime of trivializing the Shoa, which, beyond the personal, offends the memory of millions." He accompanied his message on social networks with a video that shows him at the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.
At the end of the short video, the libertarian closed: "Say anything about me, but don't offend the victims of a massacre like the Holocaust." After his response, the deputy continued his criticism of the President and gave his version of the origin of the support that drives him to run in the 2023 elections.
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