Back

LatinNews Daily - 5 August 2015

Argentina: Drugs, guns, dollars - and primaries

Development: On 4 August allegations of murder and drug trafficking – along with the management of currency exchange rates – dominated Argentina’s political scene, with just five days to go ahead of the national primaries.

Significance: Almost everything Argentine politicians do for the rest of this week will be about gaining or losing votes in the national, open, mandatory and simultaneous party primaries (Paso) ahead of the October general elections, due to be held on 9 August. Two strategies seem to have been deployed: sensational revelations over government corruption on the one hand, and an attempt to reassure floating voters over economic policy on the other.

  • Allegations that the government’s cabinet chief, Aníbal Fernández, was involved in a triple homicide linked to drug trafficking in 2008 continue to dominate Argentine press headlines. Jorge Lanata, the high-profile journalist who made the claim, says the entrance to his private apartment in Buenos Aires was stoned and empty 9mm cartridges were left in the road – a clear message of intimidation.
  • The government has dismissed this, saying police inquiries show “drunken tramps” had thrown stones at the entrance. Fernández himself, while angrily denying involvement in the triple homicide or in drug trafficking, says the allegations against him are electorally motivated and that he will take legal action, as “the electoral code says you can’t try and influence the vote by lying and making things up as is happening in this case”.  Fernández, who hopes to run for governor of Buenos Aires province for the ruling Frente para la Victoria (FPV) faction of the Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists), has also lashed out at his rival in the nomination race within the ruling party- the incumbent FPV governor of Buenos Aires province, Daniel Scioli.
  • Scioli, the front-runner in the presidential race, is downplaying the allegations against Fernández. The two men are not close, but Scioli said he did not believe the accusations against his fellow party member, which were part of a series of “political and media moves”. Opinion polls have been suggesting Scioli will get up to ten percentage points more votes than Mauricio Macri, the main opposition presidential candidate, in Sunday’s Paso.
  • But opinion polls have been unreliable in the recent past and to try and be doubly sure, Scioli is appealing to swing voters and to the middle ground.  In an interview published yesterday, Scioli said that if he becomes president he will gradually remove foreign currency controls – an issue important to the middle classes.  He also spoke in support of middle class desires for better security, and for commercial and professional development: in short for what he called the desire for a “normal” country.

Looking Ahead: As a presidential hopeful Scioli is trying to maintain the loyalty of the government’s core supporters – including traditional hard liners and ‘machine’ politicians represented by the likes of Aníbal Fernández – while also reaching out to middle class voters interested in more market friendly policies. While he stands a reasonable chance of balancing the two ahead of Sunday’s Paso, the tension between them is likely to persist for much longer.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 511 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

LatinNews
Intelligence Research Ltd.
167-169 Great Portland Street,
5th floor,
London, W1W 5PF - UK
Phone : +44 (0) 203 695 2790
Contact
You may contact us via our online contact form
Copyright © 2022 Intelligence Research Ltd. All rights reserved.