MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Menem think tank planning “Argentina after Kirchners”

The hegemonic political system forged by former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner and his wife and successor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has suffered an irreversible blow with the defeat of their grain duty hike bill in Congress in July, according to three Menemist intellectuals.

Menemist followers respond to former liberal (economic), conservative (politically) Argentine president Carlos Menem (1989/1999) who encouraged privatization, established a fixed exchange rate of one peso equal one US dollar to eliminate inflation and has since been accused of de-industrializing Argentina and paving the way for the massive default of 2001/02. "The consequences of the December 2001 collapse was the disappearance of the political party system" Pascual Albanese, Jorge Castro and Jorge Raventos wrote in a booklet published recently under the headline "Argentina after Kirchner â€" Peronism and the farm sector: the new political alternative". "The current power system, built by Néstor Kirchner, has two fundamental features: its hegemonic character â€"as it concentrates all resources and decisions without any institutional intervention â€" and the loss of the exercise of the state legitimate force". The support of the urban middle-class allowed Kirchner to rebuild the state's power after the 2001 meltdown â€" the country's worst-ever economic crisis â€" and also allowed the government to control street protests and dominate the Peronist party territorially, they say. Néstor Kirchner's strategy of permanent confrontation with several sectors representing a political system that was being rejected by the population, allowed him to win over the support of the urban middle-classes during his first three years in power. However, Cristina Kirchner took office amid a divorce with those middle-classes, the authors say, adding that the defeat of the grain hike bill in Congress has been a likely decisive political defeat for the Kirchners. Mid-term elections are due next year and presidential elections in 2011. Mrs. Kirchner's popularity plummeted as a consequence of the four-month farm rebellion. Castro this week made a presentation of the booklet's contents at the Argentine Productive Movement think tank which is led by former president Eduardo Duhalde. Amid Argentina's crisis, Duhalde was appointed caretaker president by Congress in 2002. After the killing of two pickets, and fearing that the social unrest could lead to deadly outbreaks such as those that toppled the Alliance administration in December 2001, he called for early elections. At the time, most Argentines were blaming politicians at large for the country's crisis and Duhalde promised not to run himself. He started looking for a successor, but two prospect candidates failed. In an attempt to prevent his arch-rival fellow Peronist Carlos Menem from possibly winning a third presidential mandate, Duhalde â€" albeit highly reluctantly â€" finally threw his support behind Néstor Kirchner, who was elected president in 2003. Until that moment, Kirchner was a little-known governor of the oil-rich province of Santa Cruz, widely seen by other Peronists as the rich cousin who turned his back to the Peronist party. As governor, he strongly supported Menem. But after becoming president he started blaming Menem for most of the country's woes. Immediately after being elected President, Kirchner and Duhalde engaged in a fierce battle over the control of the Peronist party which was won by Kirchner. Duhalde for a few years virtually disappeared as a consequence from the political arena. Now, with the Kirchners' defeat in Congress over the farm bill, he is seeking to forge an anti-Kirchnerist coalition for which he has been holding contacts, among many others, with farm leaders, San Luis Governor Alberto Rodríguez Saá, Chubut Governor Mario Das Neves, Córdoba former governor José Manuel de la Sota, and â€" remarkably â€" Menemists like Castro, a former strategic planning secretary.