ARGENTINA: Centre-Left Triumph – Ethics over Pocketbooks

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 9 1995 (IPS) - While Argentine President Carlos Menem’s May reelection was interpreted as support for his economic stability programme, the victory of the centre-left Solidarity Front’s (FREPASO) congressional candidate on Sunday is seen as a demand for greater transparency.

FREPASO’s candidate for senator, Deputy Graciela Fernandez Meijide, won the Argentine capital’s seat in a sweeping victory, taking 45.7 percent of 2.4 million votes cast.

The triumph was the young party’s biggest triumph so far at a district level. While Fernandez Meijide had been slated to win, polling firms admitted on Monday that her victory was even more overwhelming than had been expected, setting FREPASO in an excellent position to win the city government in next year’s elections.

Following Fernandez Meijide was Jorge Vanossi, of the Radical Civic Union – the country’s traditional opposition party – with 24.2 percent of the vote, while governing Justice Party candidate Antonio Erman Gonzalez – who won two years ago – fell to third place with 21 percent.

After Menem’s resounding 50 percent victory only five months ago, the Justice Party’s triple defeat – it also lost governorships in the provinces of Chaco and Neuquen – calls for an explanation.

Menem denied on Monday that the vote in the capital reflected a judgement on his economic model, or rejection of corruption and unemployment – which rose from six to more than 18 percent during the president’s first term.

“It was not a revolt against the economic model, because if it were, we would not have won on May 14,” said the president, who asked the press to “minimise” Fernandez Meijide’s win.

Alberto Kohan, general secretary to the presidency, also gave the Justice Party’s defeat short shrift: “Since May 14, the ruling party has done quite well in the polls.”

Indeed, of the seven district-level elections held since May, the Justice Party was only defeated in two, and in both cases by parties that coincide with the governing party’s economic policy.

Analysts agree that Sunday’s results do not reflect a judgement on Menem’s economic model, as did the May elections, when many voters said they voted according to their pocketbooks.

At that time, observers coined the expression “installment vote”, because of the number of people who had bought on credit and feared an increase in their installment payments.

According to Fernandez Meijide, many who had voted for the Justice Party in May came out in her support this time around.

And this is in spite of the FREPASO’s lack of a coherent alternative economic proposal.

If her overwhelming triumph is not a reflection of voters’ views on the government’s economic policies, then what does it reflect?

One factor would seem to be a wave of accusations recently slung at the government by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo – the guru of Argentina’s economic stability plan himself.

Speaking in Washington, Cavallo – who succeeded Erman Gonzalez in the economy ministry in 1991 – recognised that his denunciations could have influenced the elections in the capital on Sunday.

Fernandez Meijide is seen as an honest person who will fight for a more transparent form of politics.

Her son was “disappeared” during the 1976-83 dictatorship, and she has sat as president of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly, one of the country’s most prestigious human rights organisations.

Menem was expelled a year ago from that organisation after justifying the repression carried out by the country’s security forces, which led to the “disappearance” of between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

Fernandez Meijide and Jose Bordon – who took second place to Menem in May’s presidential elections – will now represent FREPASO in the Senate, which has a total of 48 seats.

While the victory does not imply a shift in forces in congress, it points to inconformity in the capital, and puts the centre-left coalition in a position to grow.

Thus, Fernandez Meijide’s triumph does not reflect a significant change in Argentina’s political scenario, but it does point to the consolidation of an opposition force that demands greater transparency – without major changes in economic policy.