On Sunday Argentina will go to the polls to select their candidates for the country’s upcoming October legislative elections. Though it may seem a trivial democratic chapter, the open, mandatory and simultaneous primaries will in fact be the first step in an election that is likely to prove critical to Argentina and most probably a referendum on President Cristina Fernandez’ administration.
This week’s incursion of President Cristina Fernandez at the United Nations Security Council, (because during August Argentina holds the rotating presidency of the council9 caught the attention of The Economist in a brief piece under the heading “Argentina, the Falklands and the UN: self determined”.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was booed and insulted when she visited on Wednesday afternoon at the site in the city of Rosario where at least ten people died when a several stories building collapsed following a major gas leak explosion.
Argentina’s National Electoral Court urged the Congress to revise the laws concerning state advertising in electoral periods so as not to benefit ruling party candidates. There have been several claims that President Cristina Fernandez is going over the line in supporting her candidates.
President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, used the opportunity of Argentina at the rotating chair of the United Nations Security Council to demand an end to the veto power of its five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, Britain and France), and criticize the UK refusal to engage in Falkland Islands sovereignty discussions.
The United Kingdom reiterated on Tuesday that there can be no Falkland Islands sovereignty discussions with Argentina unless and until the Islanders so wish, because there are three parties to the debate: UK, Argentina and the Falkland Islands people.
Next Sunday the Argentine electorate will be participating in the different parties’ primaries ahead of the mid term October ballot, which could signal the beginning of the end of the Kirchner decade. The event is identified as PASO, open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez visited on Monday afternoon United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and called for a restructuring of multilateral organisations in order to improve performance, using as an example regional body Unasur (Union of South American Nations).
Mercosur has become characterized for “bad leadership and worse presidents” of the countries that make up the block, since there is no incentive for the regional organization and it has become “an ideological battle political field”, said Cesario Ramalho da Silva, president of the Brazilian Rural Society.
If the Argentine government does not manage to stabilize its energy balance, which is one of the main drains of US dollars, the ban on hard currency purchases, the barriers to imports and the growing obstacles to spend money overseas for Argentine travellers will continue and could worsen, according to Buenos Aires analysts.