2023-06-24 04:32:26
Sergio Massa, Argentine Minister of Economy, presidential candidate, September 30, 2022. LUIS ROBAYO / AFP
In Argentina, Economy Minister Sergio Massa will be the sole candidate of the center-left coalition in power since 2019 for the presidential election of October 22, 2023, the coalition announced on Friday.
Sergio Massa, 51, Minister of the Economy since July 2022, will be “our candidate for the presidency”announced on Twitter the coalition, renamed “Union for the Fatherland”instead of “All Front”its name since 2019. The announcement comes after several consultation meetings on Friday, and the withdrawal of other pre-candidatures, including those of the Minister of the Interior Eduardo de Pedro launched the day before, and of an ex-vice-president currently Ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli.
It also occurs 24 hours before the close of nominations for the primaries scheduled for August 13, and therefore avoids the ruling coalition, suffering from serious unpopularity against a backdrop of out-of-control inflation (114% over twelve months), to have to go through this potentially damaging internal competition. The Union for the Homeland expressed its gratitude to Daniel Scioli and Eduardo de Pedro “for having chosen the unity of Peronism, making the collective prevail over the individual”.
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The coalition announced that Agustin Rossi, 63, current chief of staff of the council of ministers and close to outgoing president Alberto Fernandez, would be running for vice-presidency on the « ticket » conducted by Sergio Massa.
The same unity is currently not in place in the opposition, where the mayor (center right) of Buenos Aires since 2015 Horacio Larreta, 57, and Patricia Bullrich, 67, a former security minister under the presidency of the liberal Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), are at this stage pre-candidates.
IMF Satisfaction
The name of Mr. Massa had figured for months among possible presidential candidates, after the outgoing Alberto Fernandez, in April, then the ex-head of state and current vice-president Cristina Kirchner, in May, excluded represent.
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Sergio Massa, a lawyer by training, former chief of staff in 2008-2009 under the presidency of Cristina Kirchner, and former president of the Chamber of Deputies, was appointed almost a year ago to head a “super ministry” economy. He had the heavy task of trying to control inflation, while remaining within the limits of budgetary control set by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF and Argentina, the third largest economy in Latin America, reached an agreement in early 2022 on the refinancing of Argentina’s massive debt, a legacy of a loan of 44 billion dollars contracted in 2018 by the Macri government from the Washington institution.
Mr. Massa has on several occasions drawn the satisfaction of the Fund for “decisive actions” and increased budgetary discipline (deficit reduced to 2.4% of GDP in 2022, against 2.5% set by the IMF). Without being able to curb inflation, prevent the regular depreciation of the peso against the dollar, or avoid a social backlash, with poverty at nearly 40%.
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