The start of the Argentine electoral cycle, culminating in the October 27 presidential elections following the August primaries, looks quite different than anything President Mauricio Macri could have imagined when he took office in December 2015.
Macri began his administration by announcing a sweeping “cultural shift” and appointing a ministerial cabinet he billed as “the best team in the last 50 years.” On the 2015 campaign trail, Macri claimed that taming inflation would be simple, that the Kirchners’ “accursed legacy” was to blame for existing problems, and, throughout his first term he claimed, “the worst was already over.” At the same time, Macri’s talking points were also infused with images of national decadence commonly attributed to Peronism.
However, at the tail end of his “liberal” mandate, Argentina is once again confronting its old problems: runaway inflation, lack of dollars, recession, declining social indicators, bailouts, oversight, austerity from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and above all, uncertainty about the future.
