Finally, the “super” election year came to an end. After a deep political debate that reached all levels there is a new president and a new political cycle begins in Argentina. Keeping the pace with the others Latin-Americans “Popular Front” governments, the right turn given by the president Cristina Kirchner with the implementation of the austerity plan was punished at the polls benefiting the candidate (Mauricio Macri, chief of government of Buenos Aires) built along the “won decade” by the very government.
A politically weak government is born; it “borrowed” the majority of votes garnered. Only 24 percent of the votes he won in the primary elections can be considered as his own in the second round (Macri had 51.44 percent of votes in the second round). The rest voted essentially as an instrument to prevent a new Kirchnerist government (Cristina Kirchner’s candidate was Daniel Scioli, who got 48.56 percent in the second round). The parity of the final result, the minority government bloc in the parliamentary chambers, the economic crisis and the need for cuts that imperialism requires heralds a new “governability pact” between the PRO (Let’s Change – Cambiemos), the FpV (Front for Victory – Frente para la Victoria) and the dissident peronists from the PJ (Justicialist Party – Partido Justicialista).
Under the guise of the “inheritance received” and the lie of the “popular mandate given by the polls” these parties are preparing a new trap that hides another attack on the living conditions of workers. How will the working class and the people face these attacks? Has it emerged a new political alternative to Peronism after 2001? What will happen with Kirchner in the opposition? The answers to these questions will make the picture clearer.
Although the polarization in the second round gave rise to a low percentage of blank votes, the campaign for the blank vote was the only position that posed a clear view ahead of what’s next. It didn’t matter if Scioli or Macri would win, the workers would have always been the losers. The first speeches after Sunday confirmed that there was no difference in substance between the two candidates.
No time for regrets. It is time to organize the broadest unity of all who want to fight the austerity plan, the submission to imperialism and repression that are already being set up and deepening. The PSTU invite you to discuss these preliminary conclusions and get to work together to respond to the new challenges posed by the new political scenario in our country.
