(Buenos Aires) Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa, a year-long firefighter of a notoriously fragile economy, will be the sole candidate of the ruling center-left coalition for the October 22 presidential election, announced this coalition 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 the “Front de tous”, its name since 2019.
The announcement comes after several consultation meetings on Friday, and the withdrawal of other pre-candidatures, those of Interior Minister Eduardo de Pedro launched the day before, and of a former 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 Fatherland expressed its gratitude to Daniel Scioli and Eduardo de Pedro “for having chosen the unity of Peronism, in reference to the broad and complex Argentine political current, heir to Juan Domingo Peron, president from 1946 to 1955 then in 1973-1974.
The coalition has announced that Agustin Rossi, 63, current chief of staff of the Council of Ministers and close to outgoing President Alberto Fernandez, would be a candidate for the vice-presidency on the “ticket” led 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 right-wing ex-minister of Security under the presidency of the liberal Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), are at this stage pre-candidates.
IMF Satisfaction
The name of Mr. Massa had appeared 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, ruled out standing represent.
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” of the 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 repeatedly attracted the Fund’s satisfaction for “decisive actions” and increased budgetary discipline, (deficit reduced to 2.4% of GDP in 2022, against 2.5% fixed 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%.
Considered pragmatic, consensual – his presidency of the Lower House had been hailed in this sense – Mr. Massa is also highly progressive – or “upstart” according to his detractors.
An important senior official under the Kirchner presidency, he moved away from it to found a more centrist party, the Renovating Front, for which he ran for president in 2015, arriving in 3e position, behind the liberal Macri, and the Peronist candidate Daniel Scioli.
Sergio Massa has since 2019 moved closer to the Peronist epicenter, managing to keep Mr.me Kirchner, 70, who remains an ultra-dominant figure in the left political space, and undisputed leader of the Peronist movement.