Alberto Fernández announces that he will not aspire to his re-election

First modification: 04/21/2023 – 16:08

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, announced this Friday that he will not stand for re-election in the October general elections, for which his Peronist coalition Frente de Todos has not yet defined a candidate.

“Next December 10, 2023 is the exact day we celebrate 40 years of democracy. That day I will hand over the presidential sash to whoever has been legitimately elected at the polls by popular vote. I will work fervently so that it is someone who represents our political space,” said Fernández in a video posted on his Twitter account.

In his almost eight-minute statement, under the title “My decision”, the 64-year-old president recounted the indebtedness and inflation conditions in which the country received when he took office in 2019, later aggravated by the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine and currently due to “a brutal drought”, he listed.

Argentina registered the highest monthly inflation in 12 months in March, a period in which the increase in consumer prices totaled 104.3%, according to the state Institute of Statistics (Indec). Meanwhile, the dollar has skyrocketed. The green bill closed Thursday at 432 pesos per dollar, 42 pesos more than last Friday, a reflection of political tensions and high inflation.

“I have to concentrate the efforts, the commitment and the heart in solving the problems of the Argentines”, he insisted in a kind of balance of his management.

The president assured that the Frente de Todos “needs to generate a new virtuous cycle in which others are empowered to win back the hearts of those who continue to see us as the space that guarantees that the right will not return to bring us its nightmare and its darkness.”

The STEP to define candidates

Argentina will hold the first round of the presidential elections on October 22, with a possible second round on November 19.

Before, on August 13, political parties must hold mandatory primary elections.

“I believe that the PASO (Compulsory Primaries) are the vehicle for society to select the best men and women from our front who best represent us. As president of the Justicialista Party (PJ, Peronism) I am going to guarantee that everyone who feel empowered to do it,” said Fernández.

In the ruling party, the vice president and two-time president Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015) publicly desisted from seeking the presidency or any other elective position after being sentenced for corruption last December in the first instance to six years in prison and political disqualification.

However, sectors of the ruling party that consider that the sentence is a way of outlawing it promote that it review that decision.

It is speculated that the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, could launch his application if he manages to improve the economic situation, especially inflation.

In the opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (center-right), former President Mauricio Macri decided not to opt for the presidential candidacy. Instead, the mayor of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta has already begun his campaign for the primaries, as has the former Macri Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich.

(With AFP)