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Mr. Massa, meanwhile, has so far kept mum on which candidate — if any — he might endorse in the coming runoff.
“In three weeks Argentines will have to choose a new path,” he told the crowd at his election night rally. “We know the role we play. In the next hours we will get together [to announce] what we are going to do.”
But how he aligns his loyalties may depend less on ideology and more on his personal ambitions, said Joaquin Morales Sola, a prominent columnist with La Nacion. Mr. Massa stands to emerge as the unchallenged leader of the Peronist movement if Mr. Scioli — and, by extension, Ms. Fernandez — were to lose in November.
“It is in Massa’s interest that Macri be president,” Mr. Morales Sola said.
“Massa can be an important guide for a disoriented and beaten Peronism,” Mr. Camusso agreed.
Not all of his backers may comply with a likely Massa endorsement, Mr. Morales Sola said. Still, the vast majority of Argentines, who in 2011 reelected Ms. Fernandez with 54 percent of votes, this time preferred opposition candidates. “I don’t know where [Mr. Scioli] is going to get [that] 15 percent he needs to win the runoff,” he said. “To me, he is in a very complicated situation.”
Argentina’s long-suffering investors, meanwhile, seemed delighted with the prospect of a Macri victory. The Argentine Business Association praised the vote and — in thinly veiled criticism of Ms. Fernandez‘ autocratic style — called on leaders to “deepen the dialogue between all stakeholders” so as to propel “the social and economic development of our country.”