MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mrs. Kirchner underlines “job-creation” capacity of her administration

Money for GM to help save jobs in Argentina’s auto industry

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in the midst of a tough battle to retain power in Congress in this month’s mid term election took the political debate to Switzerland where she addressed the annual meeting of the International Labour Organization, (ILO).

“Those same ones that just one week before the Lehman Brothers Bank went down, were saying that Argentina was about to explode, are the ones that never warned the world about the upcoming economical crisis” said Mrs. Kirchner in her speech at the ILO meeting in Geneva.

The assembly gathers labour, business and governmental delegates from 130 and Mrs Kirchner was one of several speakers including the Presidents of France, Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazil, Lula da Silva.

CFK also remarked that “Argentina experienced an economical growth based on accumulation, production, and social inclusion. A project that has no comparison with the growth experienced in the 90's which was based on the massive destruction of employment.”

“The unemployment index has been dropping ever since we took power in 2003”. Argentina's president also highlighted that “under the current global meltdown, Argentina is completing its most important economical growth process of its 200 years of history.

”Just a few years ago it would've been crazy to think of the possibility of Argentina extending a loan to General Motors like we are doing now to save numerous jobs”. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also insisted that the ILO should take part in the G-20 meetings, in the same way that the International Monetary fund (IMF) is a regular participant of that encounters.

For this year's assembly, Mrs. Kirchner is accompanied by Labour Minister Carlos Tomada, Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Taiana, Hugo Moyano, secretary of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and other representatives of the business and labour sectors.

On June 28th Argentine voters have to renew half the Lower House and a third of Senate seats. With the effects of the global crisis already in Argentina and in permanent clashes with farmers who are protesting export taxes (and dwindling global prices that have put an end to windfall earnings) plus non reliable statistics, Argentina is trapped both domestically and externally.

Revenue is falling and insufficient to cover all the subsidies of a distorted economy, and internationally access to financial markets is virtually non existent given the still pending consequences of the defaulted sovereign bonds rescheduling, with an estimated 20% of hold outs.

In this scenario elections were advanced from October to June and even former president Nestor Kirchner (Cristina’s husband) is running for office in the crucial province of Buenos Aires where Argentine elections are usually determined.

Next to Mr. Kirchner are a number of electoral-strong government officials, who are running on the so-called testimonial candidacies (they already have elected posts and there’s no guarantee they will take seats in Congress if they win). This strategy supposedly will help the Kirchner administration retain its Congressional majority, which with less than two weeks for election day is doubtful, according to most public opinion polls.