On Sunday Argentines will be able to choose their candidates to the Senate and Lower House for the midterm October elections, in a process known as PASO, which means open mandatory, simultaneous primaries for all parties, but which are not compulsory for the electoral roll.
Mauricio Macri's ruling coalition, Let's Change suffered its first electoral defeat since winning the presidential runoff last November, at a mayoral competition in the city of Rio Cuarto, Córdoba province last Sunday.
A majority of Argentines continue to support president Mauricio Macri despite a raft of unpopular measures, public utilities rate increases, inflation, redundancies and slower activity, which his administration has been forced to implement in the first six months of his mandate in an attempt to reorganize the country's economy.
Mauricio Macri expects to meet with Barack Obama at the end of next March when the Argentine president attends in Washington the summit on Nuclear Security of which Argentina is a member. The event takes place between 31 March and first April, and if the meeting effectively takes place, it would mean the return of the formal dialogue between the two countries, rather frozen under his predecessor Cristina Fernandez.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri met on Thursday with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Davos as both leaders attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The atmosphere of the meeting was described as 'very positive' and several steps of a new relationship were announced, while the Falklands/Malvinas issue was left for further on.
The United States is ending its policy of opposing most lending to Argentina from multilateral development banks, the US Treasury Department announced. US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew informed Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay of the move on Thursday when the two met in Davos, Switzerland, the department said in a statement.
For the first time in twelve years and Argentine president will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that runs between January 20-23. President Mauricio Macri will be present together with ally Sergio Massa, leader of dissident Peronist Renewall Front, in order to attract investment.
Sergio Massa, the third contender in the Argentine presidential dispute and who did not make it to the runoff last 25 October, but managed 21% of ballots, some five million votes, compared to incumbent Daniel Scioli's 37% and Mauricio Macri's 34%, has been very careful in advancing whom he would support or recommend to vote on Sunday 22 November.
There is an 8% of voters who decide on ballot day whom they prefer and will support, and they definitively decide the election, even more when it's a runoff, according to Jorge Giacobbe an Argentine political pollster and analyst.
Sunday's presidential debate in Argentina will most probably concentrate on economic policy mainly for two reasons: one that the current system with a dollar clamp, export duties, heavy influence of the government and wild spending has the economy on the verge of collapse; but the option of orthodox policies with drastic cuts in spending, salaries and possibly jobs and consumption is also seen as fearsome.