The “changes” of the government after the elections
Argentina, December 10, 2011
Today, the president Cristina Kirchner assumed for the second time in Argentina as head of state. Since the victory obtained on October 23, there began to emerge some remarkable changes in government guidelines.
The first changes began to be felt within days of the presidential election, when Fernandez de Kirchner met with his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, with whom she exchanged praises”.
It explains in the article that “the relations between Buenos Aires and Washington became troubled from the so-called” briefcase case “that peppered Fernandez’s first election campaign in 2007”.
“In late November, the president surprised more than one when she closed the Conference of the Union Industrial Argentina (UIA) with a clear message of support to entrepreneurs”.
But in her speech to the UIA, the President announced that she will take measures to distribute the corporate earnings among workers, a claim of trade unions that was rejected by the employers but had the backing of the ruling party.
In addition, Fernandez said her government does not prohibit the turn of profits abroad, another fear of the men of the industry”.
“And for the first time publicly acknowledged that the country is facing an inflation problem, which until then had been systematically denied by the authorities”.
The president not only began to show closer to the entrepreneurs. She also moved away from the unions, particularly the main union leader from Argentina, Hugo Moyano, secretary general of the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT, for its acronym in Spanish)”.
According to many analysts, “Fernandez rotation does not respond to an ideological or political situation, but increasingly unfavorable economic circumstances. It has to do with the international context, which shows a very complicated picture”.
Miguel de Luca, president of the Argentina Society for Political Analysis (SAAP) told to the BBC that “most observers agree that 2012 will be a year of crisis for the world economy, perhaps even worse than the last financial meltdown of 2008-2009”.
Therefore, many believe that the president is’ opening the umbrella and preparing the ground for a tough year”.
Marcos Novaro, director of the Center for Policy Research (Cipol) for the same media said that “Argentina’s economy has a growing deficit and the government has to restrain unions and limit wage increases so inflation does not continue to grow”.
“In addition to a deficit as financial adviser Prefinex in 2011, it would reach U.S. $ 5,000 million (equivalent to 1% of GDP), Argentina also faces a severe capital flight, which according to private estimates this year will range between U.S. $ 18,000 million and U.S. $ 24,000 million”.
“These problems explain why the government in late November surprised with another unexpected announcement: a drastic cut in subsidies to the consumption of gas, electricity and water, for the most wealthy of the country. The removal of subsidies had been proposed by various opponents of the government during the last presidential campaign, but was not part of the ruling party’s election platform”.
Novaro said that “the broad success achieved by the president gave her the political capital necessary to implement this measure, very unpopular among those affected (not forming part of her electoral base)”.
According to the expert, “Fernandez now look to invest that capital to try to prevent a cooling of Argentina’s economy, which in the last decade grew by 54%” according to calculations by Prefinex.
Beyond the shift in presidential rhetoric (and a more conciliatory style that many attribute to the death in 2010 of Nestor Kirchner, husband and predecessor of the head of state) we should have caution of the size of the announced changes”.
According to De Luca, “not much has changed in practice, only the words and speech are different”.