2023-10-20 16:55:00
This has been the 4 years of the Government of Alberto Fernández as president of Argentina
The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, at the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, on September 19, 2023. (Credit: Adam Gray/Getty Images)
For years, Argentina seems to have no respite. With one of the economies and the populations largest in Latin America, and a past history of advancement and growth, In recent decades, the South American country has been going through economic difficulties and periods of stagnation and political instability, and each of the recent governments has felt it at the polls.
The current president Alberto Fernández, elected in 2019, is no exception: suffering from very high inflation – among other economic problems – and low popularity, he decided a long time ago not to seek re-election in the upcoming presidential elections, and Its political force, the Frente de Todos coalition (now renamed Unión por la Patria), faces a tough electoral battle to retain executive power.
What exactly happened in these busy four years that included the covid-19 pandemic and one of the worst droughts recorded in the country, a historic agricultural producer? How did Fernández reach this point?
The triumph of Alberto Fernández
When former president Cristina Fernández Kirchner – an icon of recent Argentine politics, loved and hated alike – announced in mid-2019 that the candidate of her political forces would be Alberto Fernández, one of her former collaborators turned critic, the Surprise was felt throughout the country.
Fernández, with extensive experience as an official in previous governments, had not until now been considered a popular candidate or a presidential figure, and in recent years he even came to be seen as an enemy of Fernández de Kirchner, in whose government he participated until his resignation in 2008.
But with his rise as a candidate for the Peronist coalition of the Frente de Todos, Alberto Fernández helped leave behind the bad image of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a large part of the electorate, and consolidate a moderate profile for the coalition, which allowed it to prevail in the elections. elections over then-president Mauricio Macri, who was seeking re-election in a context of recession and growing inflation.
It was a successful electoral strategy, but it brought to power an atypical type of president, with less real power than expected and a series of conditions typical of large coalitions, an unusual phenomenon in the country.
Argentina is accustomed to strong leadership and leaders who are at the same time leaders of their own political forces. This was not the case of Fernández, president of a coalition led by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – who became his vice president – and which also included other leaders, such as that of Sergio Massa.
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