Argentina neo-Nazi candidate fails to pass primary threshold

Ultranationalist Alejandro Biondini, who is also anti-Israel, gets only 58,572 votes, well below number needed to compete in general election

BUENOS AIRES — A neo-Nazi politician failed to garner enough primary votes to qualify for Argentina’s general elections in October.

The primaries on Sunday determined each party’s slate of candidates and tickets.

The candidates that don’t pass the 1.5 percent threshold of votes, are excluded from the general election.

Alejandro Biondini, a veteran far-right leader who has expressed a fondness for Hitler in the past, got 58,572 votes, or 0.24% of the vote.

A man enters the dark room to vote at a school during primary elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)

In addition to being ultra-nationalist, Biondini is also staunchly anti-Israel. He has said he would expel Argentina’s Israeli ambassador if he won the presidency.

“I define myself as a clear defender of the Palestinian State,” he tweeted in February. “I repudiate the colonialist genocidal Zionism. I reaffirm it: when I am president I will expel the British and the Israeli ambassadors.”

In launching his campaign, Biondini reiterated his promise and warned the country’s Jewish leadership.

“I said to the DAIA [Argentina’s Jewish political umbrella organization] that this is Argentina … this is not Israel,” to applause and shouts from a crowd. There was violence in the street before the event.

In this picture provided by the Frente de Todos political party, Argentina’s former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner prepares to cast her vote during primary elections in Rio Gallegos, Argentina, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019. Argentina is holding primaries elections Sunday ahead of October’s presidential elections, with Kirchner running as the vice-presidential candidate of the Frente de Todos party. (Frente de Todos via AP)

The ticket of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her former chief of staff Alberto Fernandez led all others in the primaries with 47.65% of the vote. Kirchner is the vice presidential candidate, while Fernandez is the presidential one.

Kirchner was indicted for covering up Iranian officials’ involvement in the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish Center bombing.

Current president Mauricio Macri came in second with 32.08% of the vote.