Brazil & Southern Cone - July 2009 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Kirchners’ mid-term defeat opens up political field

The government’s comprehensive defeat in the 28 June mid-term congressional elections has redrawn Argentina’s political map. President Cristina Fernández lost her majority in both houses of congress, and her husband and the government’s leading candidate, former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), was beaten into a humiliating second place in the decisive Buenos Aires province race. Kirchner has since resigned his presidency of the ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists), and with it his ambitions to succeed his wife in 2011. A power struggle within the PJ will follow, as various factions jostle to form the basis of a “post-Kirchnerista” Peronism ahead of presidential and congressional elections in 2011. Among those to emerge from the election strengthened are three presidential hopefuls: the mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri; the dissident Peronist senator, Carlos Reutemann; and the anti-K vice president, Julio Cobos.