Argentina in 2011

Argentina in 2011

Area: 2,780,403 sq km (1,073,520 sq mi)
Population (2011 est.): 40,365,000
Capital: Buenos Aires
Head of state and government: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

On Oct. 23, 2011, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was reelected president of Argentina in a landslide over a demoralized and divided opposition. Fernández de Kirchner, of the Peronist Front for Victory (FPV), garnered 54% of the vote and outdistanced her nearest competitor by 37 points. She also won a plurality in every province but one (San Luis). Fernández de Kirchner’s impressive victory was principally the product of the country’s robust economic growth (GDP expanded by about 7% in 2011), the increasingly uneven political and economic playing field on which the opposition was forced to compete, a lack of voter confidence in the opposition candidates’ ability to govern, and a host of errors made by the principal opposition leaders.

The non-Peronist opposition, which in 2009 had performed well in the country’s midterm congressional elections under the banner of the Civic and Social Agreement (AyC), was unable to unite for the 2011 elections because of ideological, personal, and strategic disagreements between the AyC’s principal players: the Radical Civic Union (UCR), the Socialist Party (PS), the Civic Coalition (CC), and the Generation for a National Encounter (GEN). As a result, the AyC splintered into three separate groups, each of which supported a different presidential candidate. The PS and the GEN joined to create the Progressive Broad Front, which backed the candidacy of Hermes Binner (PS), the governor of Santa Fe province, who finished second in the race, with 17%. The UCR allied with wealthy businessman Francisco de Narváez (who in 2009 had defeated former president Néstor Kirchner in the congressional election for Buenos Aires province) to form the Union for Social Development (UDESO). De Narváez was the alliance’s gubernatorial candidate in Buenos Aires, where 38% of Argentine voters resided. UDESO’s presidential candidate, Ricardo Alfonsín (UCR), finished a disappointing third, with 11% of the vote. The remaining candidate from that sector, Elisa Carrió (CC), captured a dismal 2% to finish last among the seven presidential candidates.

Disputes between leading anti-Fernández de Kirchner Peronists resulted in the sector’s implosion during 2011. Many of those dissidents returned to the fold of President Fernández de Kirchner; others allied with non-Peronist opposition groups; and still others opted to not participate at all in the 2011 electoral process. The remaining dissidents split into two camps, one of which supported the presidential candidacy of Alberto Rodríguez Saá (Federal Commitment), governor of San Luis province, while the other backed former president Eduardo Duhalde (Popular Front). Rodríguez Saá placed fourth in the presidential race, with 8% of the vote; Duhalde finished fifth, with 6%.

One-half of the Chamber of Deputies (130 of 257 seats) and one-third of the Senate (24 of 72 seats) also were elected on October 23. Fernández de Kirchner’s FPV and its allies won 87 seats in the Chamber and 17 seats in the Senate. That result meant that Fernández de Kirchner would enjoy the support of an absolute majority in both new houses when they convened on December 10. The remaining seats were distributed across nearly a dozen opposition parties, which ensured the continued fragmentation of the anti-Fernández de Kirchner forces in the bicameral legislature.

Despite Argentina’s booming economy, concerns grew throughout the year over increasing inflation. The government reported the inflation rate at 9.5% in December, but other sources, including skeptical international financial organizations, believed the figure to be more than twice that.

Mark P. Jones