The socio-economic crisis and scandals surrounding the pandemic of the new coronavirus that splashed Argentine President Alberto Fernández sealed the defeat of officialdom in the primaries in which candidates for the November legislative elections were chosen.
The Peronist Front d’Tots won 29.48% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, while the opposition coalition Junts pel Canvi reached 38.29% in the Open, Simultaneous and Compulsory (PAS) primaries. The opponents snatched to their rival several provinces to him and prevailed in addition in the five of more electoral weight: Buenos Aires, Cordova, Santa Fe, Mendoza and the Argentine capital. In the first, the most populous and historical bastion of Peronism, the defeat by almost five points was especially bitter.
The financial markets celebrated the defeat of the officialism, of center-left tendency. The Merval index – which measures the behavior of major companies on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange – climbed 10%, while Argentine shares listed on Wall Street soared to 17%. Meanwhile, the dollar traded in the informal sector fell 3 pesos from Friday and sold at 182 pesos per unit.
Chief of Staff Santiago Cafiero on Monday acknowledged the election stumble and said the government “is committed to hearing the message of the polls” and pledging to “deepen the economic recovery agenda” in a context in which poverty hits 42% of the population and unemployment 10%.
The official attributed the defeat to the impact of the pandemic and the prolonged quarantine that shook an already battered economy.
The president himself admitted on the eve of the mistakes made. “Something we have not done well so that people do not accompany us as we expected them to accompany us,” said Fernández, the only speaker in a scenario in which Vice President and former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015), partner in the ruling coalition, had an austere gesture.
The impetus given by the government in recent months to the coronavirus vaccination plan, which for a long time passed very slowly, was not enough to reverse the bad mood of Argentines, who question the management of the pandemic and have been very upset with the scandals related to the indiscriminate vaccination of like-minded people in the government and the non-compliance of the quarantine by the president himself.
Argentina declared in March 2020 one of the longest quarantines in the world, but still exceeded 5.2 million infections and more than 113,000 deaths, ranking among the most affected Latin American nations .
Political consultants had been anticipating low turnout due to the disillusionment of the electorate with officialdom and political leadership in general. Fernández -in power since the end of 2019-, suffered in the last month a sharp drop in its approval, which reaches only 30 points.
“We saw the apathy of the people and said that it could turn into a punishment vote or a blank vote and the truth that a gale of votes against the government was unleashed; seven out of ten (consulted) think that it cannot manage the economy and six out of ten cannot manage the pandemic and it has also been perceived as corrupt by the latest scandals, ”Mariel Fornoni, director of management & fit consulting firm, told AP.
Fornoni outlined that the opposition “must understand for its part that the victory was largely due to the vote against government and that it did not have as much merit” of its own. Opponents include former Conservative President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) as one of his main references.
Deepening the unrest in the November general legislatures, where half of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be renewed, officialdom would lose control of the upper house and the simple majority in the lower house, which it would force him to negotiate his agenda with the opposition.
The fight for the recovery of electoral support is presented as a challenge as it will take place in the midst of a lukewarm recovery of the economy that has not yet perceived the common people, an accumulated inflation so far year of 29, 1% and arduous negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to refinance a debt of about 44 billion USD