Argentina in 2007

Argentina in 2007

Area: 2,780,403 sq km (1,073,520 sq mi)
Population (2007 est.): 39,531,000
Capital: Buenos Aires
Head of state: Presidents Néstor Kirchner and, from December 10, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

On Oct. 28, 2007, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the first woman in Argentina’s history to be directly elected president. In July her husband, Pres. Néstor Kirchner, decided not to seek reelection to another four-year term and instead nominated Fernández de Kirchner as the governing Front for Victory’s presidential candidate.

Fernández de Kirchner handily won the election with 45% of the popular vote, nearly double that of her closest competitor, former national deputy Elisa Carrió of the Civic Coalition, who tallied 23%. The presidential field was rounded out by former economy minister Roberto Lavagna (17%), San Luis Gov. Alberto Rodríguez Saá (8%), former national deputy Fernando (“Pino”) Solanas (2%), and nine other candidates who combined garnered 6%. Fernández de Kirchner was the plurality winner in 21 of Argentina’s 23 provinces, losing only to Lavagna in Córdoba and to Rodríguez Saá in San Luis; she also lost to Carrió in the federal capital district.

Elections to renew 130 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate were held concurrently with the presidential contest. The Front for Victory and allied parties supporting the candidacy of Fernández de Kirchner won 83 Chamber and 16 Senate seats. The largest opposition group (the Civic Coalition and its allies supporting the Carrió candidacy) claimed 23 Chamber and 4 Senate seats. The Radical Civic Union (UCR), historically the country’s second largest party, won only 11 Chamber and 2 Senate seats. The five sitting UCR governors—including Mendoza Gov. Julio Cobos, who won the vice presidency—broke with the national UCR leadership (which backed Lavagna) and supported Fernández de Kirchner’s candidacy.

Fernández de Kirchner thus assumed office on December 10 with ample majorities in both the Chamber and the Senate (where the Front for Victory and allied parties controlled a total of 155 and 48 seats, respectively). She was expected to have no difficulty in the immediate future in obtaining the passage of her legislative program, which included initiatives to address poverty and increase infrastructure investment. The opposition was left extremely fragmented at the national level.

The Argentine economy experienced robust growth during the year, with GDP increasing by 8%. Optimism regarding the growth rate was tempered by mounting inflationary pressures, however. In January the Kirchner government intervened in the operation of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), reportedly manipulating the calculation of the inflation rate in order to keep the official figure artificially low. Few observers considered the INDEC inflation statistics to be credible. Independent estimates of Argentina’s inflation rate placed it at approximately 20% for 2007, and there were concerns that it could rise even higher in 2008.

by: Mark P. Jones