Argentina’s Alberto Fernández Rejects Economic Protectionist Measures

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina’s presidential favorite, Alberto Fernández, has pledged not to regulate the economy should he win the elections in October. In doing so, he responded mainly to the harsh criticism from Brazil’s right-wing conservative government.

“Brazil is and will remain our most important trading partner. If president Jair Bolsonaro thinks that I want to restrict the economy to prompt Brazil to abandon Mercosur, he may as well stay calm, because I’m not thinking about it,” he said in an interview with the daily La Nación.

“It’s a foolish discussion,” Fernández continued.

In doing so he was trying to ease tensions with the Brazilian government, which had announced that it would leave the Mercosur alliance in the event that protectionist measures were taken by a left-wing successor government in Argentina.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro continued to rage against Fernández on Twitter. “With the possible return of the São Paulo Forum to power in Argentina, the people are now withdrawing massive amounts of money from the banks,” he wrote, referring to the alliance of left-wing parties and organizations.

Argentina is “ever closer to Venezuela because of populism”. Previously Bolsonaro had warned: “I don’t think he [Fernández] is pursuing the path of freedom and democracy.”

Bolsonaro hinted at the recent devaluation of the Argentine peso and reaffirmed arguments by the Argentine right-wing parties that the root causes behind the economic crisis lie primarily in the left-wing parties.

The São Paulo Forum is a conference of left-wing parties from numerous Latin American and Caribbean countries. The Forum was founded in 1990 by former President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and the Workers’ Party (PT) to debate alternatives to a neoliberal policy after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A dozen smaller socialist, communist and revolutionary Argentine parties are members of the conference, although not the Peronist “Frente de Todos” alliance of top candidate Fernández.

This year, the Forum was held in Caracas in late July. Participants are repeatedly labeled as “Chavistas”, presumably also because the Venezuelan governing party PSUV is a member of the group.