MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner admits government could loose June mid term election

Kirchner’s apocalyptic words were rejected by the opposition as another example of the current administration’s authoritarian arrogance “us or chaos”.

Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and head of the country’s largest Justicialista party called on voters to support the ruling coalition in the coming mid term elections of next June 28 to avoid a collapse back into the 2001/02 scenario

“From here I want to tell all Argentines that are listening to keep well in mind, that with no memory and with no majority in Congress, Argentina could fall back into political vacuum and the crisis of 2001”, warned the former president (2003/07), who for the first time implicitly admitted the coalition that supports his wife, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner could face defeat.

Speaking during a political rally in a closed stadium in downtown Buenos Aires, Kirchner claimed that “there was a deliberate attempt to break and replace the current national and popular government”, headed by Cristina Fernandez and underlined that the coming June 28th vote “is not a minor election”.

However he also advanced that “certain press and pollsters know we are winning the battle. They should release the true opinion polls, we’re winning and victory will be with us next June 28th. They know it and that is why they attack us so viciously”.

As part of the strategy to win the mid term elections the Kirchner administration advanced voting day from October to June and the former president, although a resident from the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, registered in the province of Buenos Aires where he is expected to run for a sea in the Lower House.

Another strategy has been to convince mayors and governors of Kirchner strongholds to present themselves as “testimonial” candidates in the mid term legislative elections. After voting day they would resume their original executive posts. This tactic would reinforce chances of victory in the province of Buenos Aires which is Argentina’s main circumscription and is crucial for any group wishing to win or hold on to office.

This has been severely criticized by the Argentine opposition but some of their members are also appealing to a similar tactic, although resigning to their elected posts. Such is the case of a former governor of the province of Buenos Aires and ex ally of the Kirchners, but currently a legislator head of a dissident group inside the Justicialista party, Felipe Solá. He is tipped as one of the possible successors of the Kirchner if they were to loose hold of government.

Next June 28, half the 257 seats of the Lower House and a third of the Senate’s 72 are up for renewal. The current ruling coalition will be exposed with 63 and 12 seats. The Kirchner couple is considering the coming election as a referendum on their almost six year rule and the opposition has picked the glove.

The Kirchners face a serious challenge not only from a reorganized opposition but also from inside the ruling coalition which is growlingly disenchanted with Mr. Kirchner heavy hand and confrontational tactics, plus the fact that the economic situation and “Kirchner productive model” is rapidly deteriorating as windfall prices for commodities plummet and farmers have been protesting for over a year what they consider exorbitant export taxes.

Kirchner’s apocalyptic words were rejected by the opposition as another example of the current administration’s authoritarian arrogance “us or chaos”. However it was a former cabinet chief and Kirchner ally Alberto Fernandez who had a more caustic reply.

“It’s a mid term election, the government might not hold on to absolute majority but will be the first minority and democracies all over the world continue to function under those circumstance”.

More specifically Alberto Fernandez underlined that “if loosing an election means a return to 2001, it means all we have done and achieved these last years have been a complete failure”.