By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 2 2002 (IPS)

Senator Eduardo Duhalde was sworn in Wednesday as president of Argentina until December 2003, designated by a majority of lawmakers in a joint assembly of the upper and lower houses of Congress. But it is yet to be seen whether the population’s hostility towards the political class will abate.

“We who have governed this country over the last few decades are absolutely responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves. We Peronists are part of the problem, as is everyone who has governed this country, civilian or military,” said the new president.

“But we must be part of the solution today,” he told a group of Peronists who were waiting for him in the Casa Rosada (the presidential palace), after he received the presidential sash.

On Thursday the new cabinet ministers will take office, and on Friday the new economy minister will make his announcements, Duhalde told journalists, adding that “I must do things in a meditated and responsible manner.”

Wearing a stern expression, the man who lost the 1999 elections was installed as president to complete the truncated term of Fernando de la Rúa, who defeated Duhalde a little over two years ago, and who was forced out of office by a wave of rioting and looting on Dec 20.

Duhalde has taken the reins of power in the midst of a political, institutional, social and economic crisis without precedents in this Southern Cone country of 36 million. Unemployment stands at 18.3 percent, 40 percent of the population has fallen into poverty, and according to the new president, there are two million people living in extreme poverty.

Duhalde’s immediate predecessor, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, also of the Justicialista (Peronist) Party, lasted just one week in office, resigning when he lost the support of powerful members of his party.

Duhalde promised the legislative assembly Tuesday that he would scrap the “convertibility” or currency board system by which every peso was pegged to and backed by the dollar for a decade.

A pledge to get rid of the convertibility scheme cost him votes in 1999, when the electorate, fed up with the corruption-riddled administration of Carlos Menem (1989-99), wanted “moderate change” and an honest, austere leader – a description that voters concluded fit de la Rúa better than Duhalde.

Duhalde was Menem’s running-mate in 1989. But he served less than two years as vice-president before resigning to become the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, the country’s most populous and richest province, where he served two consecutive terms.

In 1999, after waging a political battle in the Justicialista Party to block Menem from running for a third term, he was defeated by de la Rúa. In October 2001 he won a seat in the Senate, representing the province of Buenos Aires.

Duhalde will put an end to the convertibility regime, which will lead to an immediate devaluation of the peso, of uncertain magnitude. He will also renegotiate the suspension of payments on Argentina’s 132 billion dollar public debt – announced by Rodríguez Saá – and will implement policies aimed at reviving production and domestic demand.

Those decisions will be put into effect by the new economy minister, Jorge Remes Lenicov, a former associate of Duhalde while he served as governor.

The “pot and pan beating” protests and disturbances through which Buenos Aires residents expressed their profound indignation with their political leaders since the de la Rúa administration fell on Dec 20 broke out again at 23:15 local time Tuesday (02:15 GMT Wednesday), when Duhalde was designated by 262 deputies and senators out of a total of 301.

Hundreds of protesters also marched up to the doors of Congress. But when Duhalde began to deliver his speech, the noise died down, and near silence reigned.

The new president said deposits in dollars that account-holders have been unable to withdraw from the banks due to restrictions adopted over a month ago would be made available, in dollars.

The 1,000 dollar a month limit on cash withdrawals of savings, paychecks or pensions, aimed at curbing a run on banks, was one of the factors that has most upset Argentina’s middle classes.

The protests that erupted when Duhalde was chosen by the legislative assembly were a warning to the new president, who was preparing Wednesday to set up a cabinet of national unity made up of leaders who enjoy a strong image among public opinion, to neutralise the effects of a designation that was not the product of popular elections.

Duhalde will reportedly create a ministry of industry and commerce, which could be headed by the president of the Argentine Industrial Union, Ignacio de Mendiguren. A leading figure of the Radical Civic Union, de la Rúa’s party, will apparently be named to head the justice ministry.

It was also confirmed that the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Carlos Ruckauf, will be the new foreign minister. He will travel Saturday to Brazil, Argentina’s main trade and political partner (in the Mercosur trade bloc). From there, he will head to the United States.

Some analysts said the “pots and pans” protest late Tuesday targeted Duhalde, while others interpreted it as an expression of repudiation of the traditional political class, and of the agreement not to call early elections. Still others say the public was merely demanding to be informed of the real magnitude of the crisis, without false promises or demagoguery.

The formula agreed on by Peronists and the opposition to name Duhalde included the annulment of Rodríguez Saá’s call for presidential elections on Mar 3.

The constitution states that in the event that the country is left without a president or vice-president – de la Ruá’s running- mate Carlos Alvarez stepped down in October 2000 and was not replaced – the legislative assembly should designate a new president “until the elections.”

However, it does not specify whether early elections are to be held, or if it is merely referring to the normal ballots scheduled every four years.

In the face of the power vacuum created by de la Rúa’s resignation, the legislative assembly initially agreed to name an interim president for 90 days, and hold elections for a new leader who would finish out de la Rúa’s term.

But when Rodríguez Saá stepped down last Sunday, the political leaders decided to hash out a new formula, based on another interpretation of the constitution, with the aim of creating a government that would have broad backing.

The motion introduced to the legislative assembly won 100 more votes than the proposal that had made Rodríguez Saá caretaker president.

The unrest, especially among the middle classes, continued to rumble after Duhalde was named, although the waning of the noise of pots and pans suggested that people were beginning to think that the new president should be given a chance.

“The legitimacy of a president comes with the vote, but is also built through the actions taken by the government. De la Rúa enjoyed legitimacy from the start, but he lost it in six months,” said sociologist Graciela Romer, with the polling firm Romer y Asociados.

Duhalde admitted that the country was in an “extreme situation.” He also said he would not run for the presidential elections of 2003, and promised “to put an end to a model that has been exhausted” – an allusion to the neo-liberal economic policies followed by Menem and de la Rúa.

His aim, he said, was to overhaul the economic model, starting by doing away with the convertibility law and devaluing the peso, while he negotiates with the multilateral lending institutions.

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