Fratricidal war in Argentina

Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, after the defeat in the primary elections.MAXIMILIANO LUNA / AFP

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• Fernández vs. Fernández in Argentina

The electoral defeat of Peronism in the open primary elections in Argentina exposed the growing internal tensions of the coalition led by the president, Alberto Fernández, and his vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Born on the initiative of the former president to win the generals of 2019, as it finally happened, the Frente de Todos, as the ruling coalition is called, now pays for its original sins. He has a man at the head of the government who exercises power, but he does not have the votes. In the background he has a woman who has the votes, but without the right to power. As the architect of the alliance, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner then exercises all her influence over Fernández, whom she considers indebted to her.

This unnatural structure, where the second dominates over the first, weighed down the official strategies against the inherited economic crisis and the covid-19 pandemic. The Peronist coalition, founded on the belief that "united Peronism will never be defeated," now exhibited the magnitude of its weakness at the polls. The changes in the Cabinet of ministers after the defeat were resolved loudly, like an open fight between the president and his vice president. Cristina Kirchner finally won the pulse: Fernández had to sacrifice his chief minister, Santiago Cafiero, and his Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, in addition to the resignation of up to six more ministers, along with other high positions.

The noises of the palace barely hide the fact that Argentina's underlying problems are aggravating day by day. Poverty exceeds 40% and grows to 63% among those under 14 years of age. Unemployment rises and inflation is at 50% per year. Meanwhile, the country tries to refinance with the IMF part of the 44,000 million dollars that the organism gave to the Government of Mauricio Macri in 2018. The Government has undertaken the five weeks that remain for the legislative elections of November 14 limited by the crisis and weakened on the political front. If the results of the primaries of September 12 were repeated, when he lost in 18 of the 24 districts of the country, he will no longer have absolute control of the Senate and will cease to be the first minority in the Chamber of Deputies. The risks to governance in stormy times are obvious.

That is why the Peronist government is urged to end the fratricidal war waged by the two heads of the Executive in pursuit of consensual solutions to the crisis. Argentina lives in relative social peace, unlike neighbors like Chile or Colombia, but it must avoid the erosion of political peace at all costs. Only in this way will it be able to overcome years of economic decline and grow as its inhabitants deserve.