More than 90% of the votes counted today, Monday, by the Peronist left candidate, Alberto Fernandez, led by Argentina, over his opponent, the outgoing liberal president, Mauricio Macri, in the general elections that took place yesterday.
Macri admitted his defeat and congratulated his rival Fernandez. In a speech to his supporters, Macri referred to Fernandez as the president-elect, and said they spoke of the start of an “orderly political transition”. He added that he invited Fernandez for breakfast, today.
After counting more than 90% of the votes, Fernandez obtained 47.79% of the vote compared to 40.71% for Macri.
Fernandez said during his last election festival, last Thursday, that “with Sunday’s vote we have to start turning the disgraceful page that I started writing on December 10, 2015” on the day Macri won the poll. Former President Christina Kirchner, vice presidential candidate with Fernandez, was at his side.
Macri, 60, ends his term during the worst economic crisis in Argentina since 2001. She has been experiencing deflation for more than a year and a massive inflation rate of 37.7% in September. Argentinians.
However, investors fear that the election of Fernandez will lead to the return of the state intervention policy, which the country witnessed during the era of the Kirchner couple in the years 2003-2015.
Analysts are wondering who will actually rule: Fernandez, who was director of President Kirchner’s office and her husband Nestor Kirchner accepted the president between 2003 and 2007, or Kirchner herself (66 years old).
On Friday, many Argentines, accustomed to economic fluctuations, lined up with banks and exchange offices to buy dollars or withdraw their deposits.
Fernandez sought to reassure them. “To reassure the Argentines, we will respect their deposits,” he said, alluding to the specter of the measures taken in 2001 in Argentina to end a race against liquidity and capital flight, and it was called “Corralito”.
But film director Martin, 50, does not feel confident. On Friday, he carried a bag full of Argentine currency to buy three thousand dollars from a currency exchange office. “The story itself is always repeated,” he said. “My parents lost everything because of the ‘Corralito’ and I don’t want that to happen to me,” he added.
Since the primaries, Argentine savers have withdrawn about $ 12 billion from their accounts, or about 36.4% of all deposits.
Fernandez will have to pull the country out of the economic crisis and reach consensus, and this is not easy in a country that is increasingly polarized. Two days before the poll, the markets seemed to be boiling. Within a week, the peso lost 5.86% of its value against the dollar, which has historically constituted the haven for Argentines.
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