In a surprise result, seven out of ten voters chose opposition parties in Argentina’s mid-term elections on 28th June, a result that has raised questions for the future of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government.
The administration lost their majority in both houses, with opposition parties now having control of Congress, and in the Senate the government now has exactly half of the seats.
Wealthy Colombian-born businessman Francisco De Narváez competed with former president Néstor Kirchner in the scramble for Buenos Aires Province seats in Congress, beating him by two percentage points.
Mauricio Macri, Buenos Aires mayor and an ally of De Narváez, said voters had demonstrated their feelings to the president with their choices: “They sent a message that is absolutely clear, which is, ‘enough’.”
The following day, Kirchner stood down from his post as leader of the ruling party, Partido Justicialista (PJ) following the Peronist tradition that requires resignation as a matter of respect. Buenos Aires governor Daniel Scioli will step in but he remains on thin ice having lost alongside Kirchner in his bid to win in the province.
According to political analyst and director of Argentina Elections, Hugo Passarello Luna, the defeat in the mid-term elections will mean that the government “will be forced to negotiate”.
Losing 18 seats and control of Congress means that it will be much harder to get laws approved. The leadership also failed to win over voters in the Santa Cruz province, previously known as the Kirchner stronghold, being their home province. The former president tried to maintain his composure, saying: “We accept the results. We have lost only by a little bit. We fought with dignity.”
Meanwhile De Narváez spoke of his ambitious plans to “change history”, tackling crime and productivity head on. But Passarello Luna believes the political strategy to be “unclear”, adding: “He invests a lot in image.”
Some speculate the De Narváez’s win as less a seal of approval for the businessman, and more as the result of a punishment vote against the Kirchners. The populace of the agricultural province of Buenos Aires may have voted for De Narváez in order to prevent the former president from winning, the memory of 2008’s ‘campo crisis’ still fresh in voters’ minds.
President Fernández de Kirchner last year attempted to raise export tariffs on agricultural products, leading to months of stagnation whilst the countryside ground to a halt in strikes, protests and road blockades in prostest at the move. The president was forced to back down after her own deputy, Julio Cobos – largely seen to be a winner in the mid-term elections – turned his back on her, casting the deciding vote in the Senate against the new laws, in one of the most dramatic moves in recent Argentine political history.
The dark horse of last month’s elections, filmmaker Fernando Pino Solares, surprised many by coming second in the city of Buenos Aires. He commented after his win, the result could be due to the competition, commenting “we are good because the rest are bad”. Appealing to centre-left voters, traditionally a Kirchner stronghold, it could be ‘Pino’ has something of the truth on his side, given the election results.
Regarding ‘Pino’, Passarello Luna commented that although he is the candidate for progressive change, “he has no political structure, and unless he sorts one out I don’t think we can see any development.”
But on the whole, the results of the mid terms may prove that, in electing a businessman and filmmaker, Argentina’s population has said “enough” to the status quo. Time will tell what that means for the country, and for the president’s remaining time in office.