• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Argentina’s Macri Ousted Amid Recession, Rising Poverty

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
10/28/19
in Featured, World
President of Argentina Mauricio Macri

Argentina's President Mauricio Macri. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Populist left-wing candidate Alberto Fernandez won a resounding victory in Argentina’s presidential election Sunday, ousting center-right incumbent Mauricio Macri.

Fernandez, a 60-year-old law professor, had 48 percent of the votes – easily crossing the threshold for outright victory – after 99 percent of the votes had been counted, with Macri trailing at 40.44 percent.

Macri’s downfall comes amid a lengthy recession and a debt crunch, raising market fears of a possible default on a $57 billion IMF loan.

Argentina’s poverty rate has risen to more than 35 percent, inflation for the year to September was at almost 38 percent, while the peso has depreciated 70 percent since January 2018.

The peso fell 5.86 percent in the week before the elections, and the week ended with the dollar at 65 pesos.

President-elect Fernandez has barely time to savor his emphatic triumph in Argentina’s elections before facing the challenge of trying to dampen likely volatile market reaction to his victory on Monday.

VIDEO: Hundreds of ecstatic Alberto Fernandez supporters wave flags and cheer at the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, as the Peronist candidate in #Argentina swept to a first-round triumph in the presidential election #ArgentinaDecide pic.twitter.com/oA5EL2Ry2Y

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 28, 2019

Fernandez is scheduled to have an early breakfast meeting with Macri at the Casa Rosada palace to begin cooperating on damage limitation as Argentina swings from Macri’s market-friendly policies back to Peronist protectionism.

His win caps a remarkable political comeback for his running mate, ex-president Cristina Kirchner, who will be his vice-president despite facing a slew of trials over graft allegations stemming from her 2007-2015 presidency.

Thousands of ecstatic Fernandez supporters cheered and danced outside his Frente de Todos party headquarters in Buenos Aires even before the results were announced.

At Fernandez’s side, Kirchner called on Macri in the last days of his rule “to take all necessary measures to alleviate this dramatic situation.”

Regional Tensions 

The election came amid high tensions in the region, with massive protests in neighboring Chile and Bolivia, as well as recent unrest over inequality in Ecuador.

Fernandez paid tribute to Evo Morales for his election victory in neighboring Bolivia to win a fourth term. He also wished ex-Brazil president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is jailed on highly controversial charges – a happy 74th birthday.

Turnout in Sunday’s general election was over 80 percent after a campaign dominated by the crippling economic crisis affecting Latin America’s second-biggest economy.

Argentina’s Peronists swept back into power on Sunday as Alberto Fernandez ousted conservative president Mauricio Macri. More here: https://t.co/rIEH3aqRMs pic.twitter.com/pv8Suc64ih

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 28, 2019

Macri had called for a massive turnout, which analysts saw as his main hope of closing a large opinion poll deficit on Fernandez and forcing a second round.

Fernandez has insisted his government would not default but rather seek to renegotiate the terms of the loan, and sought to reassure voters that their bank deposits would be safe under his administration.

Since Fernandez’s crushing victory in August primaries, Argentine savers have withdrawn around $12 billion from their accounts.

Macri pledged “a healthy and constructive opposition.”

Fernandez earlier vowed to end the polarization which has long divided Argentine politics between his Peronist movement and supporters of the business-friendly incumbent.

“The days of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ are over,” the mustachioed leftist leader said after voting. “We are in an enormous crisis. Everyone has to take responsibility for what’s ahead.”


More on the Subject 

 

 

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Pro-choice activists celebrate after the Senate approved a bill to legalize abortion outside the Congress in Buenos Aires on December 30.
World

Argentines Celebrate as Senate Passes Landmark Abortion Bill

by Staff Writer
December 30, 2020
Argentinians celebrating a bill that legalizes abortion.
World

Amnesty Gathers 250,000 Signatures for Legal Abortion in Argentina

by Staff Writer
December 17, 2020
Diego Maradona
World

Argentines Mourn Maradona Amid Economic Crisis and Pandemic

by Staff Writer
November 26, 2020
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales
World

Morales Says Will Return to Bolivia After Ally’s Election Victory

by Staff Writer
October 19, 2020
Aerial view of demonstrators during the fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices in Valparaiso Chile, on October 22, 2019. - Photo:JAVIER TORRES/AFP
Featured

Violence Flares as Chile Braces for New Anti-Government Protests

by Staff Writer
March 3, 2020
Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez
Opinion

Argentina and the IMF: Who Is at Whose Mercy?

by Robert Haywood Scott and Kenneth Mitchell
February 19, 2020
Next Post
Aerial view of demonstrators during the fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices in Valparaiso Chile, on October 22, 2019. - Photo:JAVIER TORRES/AFP

Chile President Lifts State Of Emergency, But Protests Continue

Demonstrators hold up a banner reading ‘Who votes for Höcke votes for fascism’ referring to AfD candidate Björn Höcke. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP

Jewish Groups Voice Fear Over German Far-Right Surge

Recommended

An Iranian protester

Iran’s Nuclear Program: From Its Origins to Today’s Dispute

June 23, 2025
Protesters and police clash during the “No Kings” protest in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 2025.

US Appeals Court Allows Trump Control of National Guard in LA

June 20, 2025
Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors light up the sky over Beirut, Lebanon, on June 14, 2025. Iran launched multiple missiles toward Israeli targets, triggering interception attempts above several regional capitals, including Beirut.

Israel-Iran Conflict: Latest Developments

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
An Iranian walking in front of a wall painting of the Iranian flag in Tehran

How Much Damage Has Israel Inflicted on Iran’s Nuclear Program?

June 16, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post