MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

How will Cristina Fernandez react the day after, next October, faced with defeat?

Duhalde fears about the current state of mind of the president

Former Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde expressed concern over the results of the coming mid-term elections next October fearing the reaction of President Cristina Fernandez if she loses the congressional majority.

“I feel the president is very upset, almost angry and I my fear, regarding democracy and the system, is how will she react to a defeat which looks solid next October. In the current psychological and state of mind of the president, my fear is: what is going to happen, because we don’t have a reliable Vice-president, he is a shameless character”, said Duhalde.

The former caretaker president (2002/May 2003) discarded the possibility of any constitutional amendment to open the way for a third consecutive mandate for Cristina Fernandez in 2015.

“I see her wanting to, with high spirits about the option, but not with the capacity or necessary state of mind”, said Duhalde regarding a possible re-re-election of Cristina.

Duhalde criticized the latest government decisions and warned that inflation is ‘tremendous’, almost ‘out of control’ and questioned the president’s economic team because “they simply can’t manage the situation or contain prices, and this is decisive for any election”.

“The government is well aware of the problem but does not know how to handle it”, said the former leader who handpicked Nestor Kirchner in 2002 to run for president in 2003. A few months later Kirchner dumped Duhalde and his people, unless they changed loyalty and the two leaders became extremely critical of each other.

Next October half the Lower House seats and a third of the Senate will be contested, and the ruling coalition could find itself with a big surprise.

Recent Argentine history, since the return of democracy in 1983, indicates that these elections mid term elections, with no possibility for the Executive of running another four years, can turn the president into a ‘lame duck’, extremely vulnerable and debilitated as the hegemonic Peronist party agrees on a new leader.