Let’s all agree that, even Schiaretti being the most presidential candidate, none except for Milei has a political platform, or a plan. Larreta literally said “I’ll comment on that once I’m president”. And Bullrich made a poor joke of herself in the debates.
So yeah… Milei was the unlikely best candidate.
2015 elections. Actually, 2015 elections are a better example than this. Argentina wasn’t half as bad as now. And people in the most important place (Conurban region) view for the change, because there was a solution that was not peronism. Unfortunately, Macri let everyone down with his gradualism strategy, instead of a shock strategy. That’s why the peronism came back.
I’m simplifying a lot of stuff, there are other reasons for everything. Like Cristina’s legal issues, the kirchnerist party corruption, and the sort. In the same vein, Macri’s lack of boldness in some cases created a crisis of its own.
From one side, not all protests were against the national government, some if not most, were and are usually against the Buenos Aires City government (which is not peronist), or against some other government. You must take into account that Buenos Aires is a city with a high concentration of institutional buildings. So everything is in Buenos Aires. There’s this old saying in Argentina “God is everywhere, but his offices are/he only attends in Buenos Aires”
On the other hand, the peronist party is a highly fractured party. It’s more like a coalition of different minded individuals, that gather around the caudillo in turn. That’s why Perón himself said “peronists are like cats, when you hear them screaming, they are not fighting, they are matting”. Once the caudillo is in power, he must maintain it, and strength demonstrations are usually in the form of “getting the street”. Meaning, making a ruckus and sending people to protest. This goes for both sides, sports and detectors.
So, as you can hopefully see, Argentina’s politics aren’t as straightforward as thought.