President of Argentina promises to correct mistakes after primary election setback

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, asked this Tuesday (14) those who did not vote for his party in the primary elections of this Sunday not to condemn Argentina “to the setback” of the opposition administration until 2019, by promising that his government will do what was postponed and “correct” what it did wrong.

With an eye on the legislative elections of next November 14, Fernández asked those who did not vote for the ruling party not to interrupt “the march” that began with his mandate as part of the Frente de Todos in December 2019, when he defeated former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), who is part of the opposition Juntos por el Cambio, the coalition that this Sunday received greater support in the primaries.

“We know we have things to correct. What we did wrong, we will correct; what we did not do, we will do; the mistakes made, we will not make them again, but please let’s not condemn the country to regression,” he said.

The first elections with Fernández as president were treated by analysts as a plebiscite on his mandate – marked by the management of the pandemic and the continuity of the recession that began in 2018 – and to reorder the opposition given the 2023 presidential elections.

According to the provisional count of this Sunday’s elections, the lists of pre-candidates for deputies of the ruling Frente de Todos coalition were the most voted in only 7 of the 24 jurisdictions, compared to the 14 in which the opposition Juntos por el Cambio was the most popular force. At the same time, with its candidates for the Senate, the Government led in only 2 of the 8 provinces at stake.

“To those who did not vote for us, I ask them, please, to think that Argentina deserves something better than what happened to us until 2019”, he warned, indicating that in Macri’s Administration, SMEs were closing, jobs were being lost. Social plans had to be multiplied by three.

“Now that this time” of the pandemic “is passing”, it is time to “continue doing what we have been doing, and it was well done, to do what we should have postponed and did not do, to correct the things we did wrong,” he promised.

He asked his party militants to convince the electorate that “what is at stake” is that “Argentina gets back on its feet”, that “jobs come back”, that “Argentine businessmen continue to settle their capital” in the country.

Fernández pointed out again that his government is betting on the “world of industry” over the “financial world” but that he is “convinced” that “the union of capital and labor” is what dynamizes growth and that they are “committed” to distribute jobs.

On November 14, 127 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies -where no group now has an absolute majority- and 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate, dominated by the ruling party, will be renewed.