tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/cristina-de-kirchner-14802/articlesCristina de Kirchner – The Conversation2019-12-16T14:41:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1288002019-12-16T14:41:35Z2019-12-16T14:41:35ZArgentina debt crisis: IMF austerity plan is being derailed<p>The centre left is back in control in Argentina now that Alberto Fernandez <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/10/argentina-alberto-fernandez-inauguration">has taken</a> office as president, succeeding the pro-market <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mauricio-Macri">Mauricio Macri</a>. The Peronists may have returned with an orderly transition, but Fernandez faces an economic and financial crisis and is on a collision course with the IMF.</p>
<p>This stems from the “turbulence” of April 2018, in which the peso <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-economy/argentinas-economic-crisis-explained-in-five-charts-idUSKCN1LD1S7">devalued</a> 11% against the US dollar in less than a week <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2019/04/11/the-trouble-with-argentina-s-economy">amid</a> rampant inflation, a recession, high unemployment and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/13bd4936-7879-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab">wider worries</a> about emerging markets within the global economy. The Macri administration accepted an IMF bailout to the tune of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-imf/imf-has-a-decision-to-make-in-argentina-rock-or-hard-place-idUSKCN1VY224">US$44 billion</a> (£33 billion), later expanded to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-financial-crunch-awaits-argentinas-new-leader-11572298978">US$57 billion</a>. This was initially intended only as a stand-by to increase liquidity and shore up confidence around the peso, but was <a href="https://www.lanacion.com.ar/economia/como-gasto-gobierno-mauricio-macri-millones-llegaron-nid2309497">quickly used</a> to repay certain debts. </p>
<p>This was the IMF’s largest ever stand-by loan, while for Argentina it meant new debt and economic conditions from an agency that is still widely loathed in the country. No one forgets <a href="https://madamasr.com/en/2016/12/13/feature/economy/imf-intervention-lessons-from-asia-and-latin-america/">the fund’s role</a> in the <a href="https://economics.rabobank.com/publications/2013/august/the-argentine-crisis-20012002-/">monumental crisis</a> and default of 2001-02. It is barely a decade since the former centre-left president, Nestor Kirchner, <a href="https://nacla.org/article/argentina-government-pays-back-imf-debt">cleared</a> the previous IMF loans. </p>
<h2>Macri vs the Kirchners</h2>
<p>Macri’s IMF agreement was the antithesis of Kirchner’s “de-indebtedness” policy, which continued under his wife and successor Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is now back as deputy president. Between 2002 and 2014, Argentina restructured and repaid its debts, agreeing a plan with 93% of the creditors who owned its sovereign bonds. This echoed previous <a href="https://www.networkideas.org/featart/jul2005/Argentinean_Debt.pdf">restructurings</a> in 1982 and 1989. </p>
<p>The Kirchners also reduced debt denominated in foreign currency to relatively low levels – <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/316929/national-debt-of-argentina-in-relation-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp/">around</a> 45% of GDP in 2014, <a href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/argentina/government-debt--of-nominal-gdp">compared</a> to 120% in 2002 – even if these figures can partially be explained by <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=AR">GDP growth</a> and <a href="https://www.argentina.gob.ar/economia/finanzas/deudapublica/informes-trimestrales-de-la-deuda">a rise in</a> local currency debt. By contrast, Macri increased this debt to well over 80% in less than four years, ahead of a “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9161f0c0-caff-11e9-a1f4-3669401ba76f">selective default</a>” in which some debt repayments were postponed. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307150/original/file-20191216-123983-14hpxjb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/316929/national-debt-of-argentina-in-relation-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp/">Statista; 2019 is a forecast.</a></span>
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<p>Certainly, the Kirchners had critics. In 2016, the Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/88f513fa-2e6b-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a">said they had</a> bequeathed to Macri “an economy on the brink of crisis, ravaged by one of the world’s highest inflation rates”. Well, sadly this is even truer now. If <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/uca-reports-poverty-rates-have-reached-40-in-third-quarter-amid-political-transition.phtml">40% poverty</a>, 56% child poverty, 60% annual inflation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/opinion/argentina-macri-elections.html">a 5% decline in GDP</a>, almost 30% youth unemployment and plummeting consumption and investment were not enough, Macri also failed in his efforts to make the country more business friendly. </p>
<p>Argentina’s risk rating <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/rating">is rising</a> and sovereign bond prices <a href="https://www.investing.com/rates-bonds/argentina-7-year-bond-yield">have declined</a> sharply. Leftist policies that Macri had repudiated, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49547189">capital and exchange controls</a>, protectionist <a href="https://www.agricensus.com/Article/Argentina-raises-import-duty-soybean-import-bill-could-rise-by-30m-6428.html">export tariffs</a> and <a href="https://nearshoreamericas.com/argentina-imposes-price-controls-again-contain-inflation/">price controls</a>, were all re-established in his final months in office. Many voters see a clear link between indebtedness and the social disaster Macri has left behind. </p>
<h2>Commodities and bonds</h2>
<p>Argentina’s difficulties are linked <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2014/03/29/life-after-the-commodity-boom">to the demise</a> of the world commodity boom in 2014. A <a href="http://www.worldstopexports.com/argentinas-top-10-exports/">big exporter</a> of soya and corn, the downturn has exposed the limits of Argentina’s competitiveness and its struggles to attract investment into other sectors. </p>
<p>Relying heavily on commodities constrains Argentina’s growth potential and tends to make the peso volatile. Yet the country also suffers from local and foreign investors suddenly pulling out of its sovereign bonds and stocks when fears for the world economy rise. Under Macri’s administration, an estimated US$60 billion to US$75 billion <a href="http://bcra.gob.ar/PublicacionesEstadisticas/Estad%C3%ADsticas_Mercado_de_cambios.asp">left the</a> country – exceeding the IMF loans. </p>
<p>Argentina’s attraction to short-term investors was relatively simple: high risk, high gain and the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2018/05/04/brakes-slamming-on-argentina-as-central-banks-credibility-damaged/">carry trade</a> – where borrowers in one country with low interest rates then lend in another with high rates. Exorbitant interest rates of 60% to 80% in pesos made Argentinian bonds attractive even with a brutal devaluation. The fact that they could get repaid very quickly by investing in the country’s 30-day bonds was an added attraction. </p>
<p>Some bond traders may lose out now if the new government ends up defaulting properly, but don’t bet on it. Those who refused to accept a haircut in the early 2000s – the so-called <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/a-good-week-for-vulture-funds">vulture funds</a> – were eventually paid back in full in 2016. </p>
<p>The other major question is why the IMF extended new credit to the country in this situation. Even before Macri’s technical default, it had defaulted <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/08/15/argentina-faces-the-prospect-of-another-default">eight times</a> in the past. According to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49326151">one narrative</a>, the economy still looked a reasonable bet until investor confidence was shaken from the Peronists winning the election. Yet even in December 2018, the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2018/12/19/Argentina-Second-Review-under-the-Stand-By-Arrangement-Financing-Assurances-Review-and-46485">fund’s review</a> acknowledged “significant risks to debt sustainability”. </p>
<p>The IMF lent Argentina <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b90e9fdd-d8ae-421f-9a40-380305ed811a">11 times</a> its quota of funds available to supplement state reserves, even before the amount was increased. It delivered 80% of the committed funds in just 13 months, right before an election. It <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b90e9fdd-d8ae-421f-9a40-380305ed811a">exposed 47%</a> of the fund’s outstanding credit to a single country. </p>
<p>The IMF probably saw an opportunity to impose strict discipline on Argentina. The loan came with the usual conditionalities: inflation targeting, tighter monetary and fiscal policy – not least a 25% cap on annual nominal wage rises, despite 60% inflation – <a href="https://www.oecd.org/economy/surveys/Argentina-2019-OECD-economic-survey-overview.pdf">plus</a> budget transparency and some new anti-corruption plans. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for the fund, the October election did not turn out as planned. It is telling that the IMF’s <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2019/07/15/Argentina-Fourth-Review-under-the-Stand-By-Arrangement-Request-for-Waivers-of-Applicability-47116">July report</a> named the election as the biggest risk to debt repayments – never mind the macroeconomic imbalances in the country. Presumably the main reason why there was no fifth instalment of the loans in September was that Macri had <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/28/argentina-election-incumbent-concedes-defeat-in-presidential-vote.html">lost the</a> primary election in August. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>A couple of announcements hint at how the new government will deal with the debt. The finance minister was unveiled as Martin Guzman, a close associate of the economist Joseph Stiglitz and a specialist in debt restructuring. The government <a href="https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/fernandez-dijo-no-le-pedira-al-fmi-nid2309957">has said</a> it won’t request the final US$11 billion of the IMF’s loan. The IMF conditionalities are only binding as a means of securing the rest of this money. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-economy-minister/argentine-economy-minister-guzman-sees-no-fiscal-tightening-in-2020-idUKKBN1YF2UY">has hinted</a> it will instead finance itself by suspending all debt repayments for two years, making clear to creditors it is no longer true that “Argentina’s capacity to repay remains adequate”. That will free around 4% of GDP a year. </p>
<p>Will the IMF accept this? The recent social outbursts in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/ecuador-protests-end-after-deal-struck-with-indigenous-leaders">Ecuador</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/unrest-costing-chiles-economy-protesters-press-191210194124885.html">Chile</a> were also reactions to IMF programmes, so the fund might prefer not to attract more bad PR in the region. It is certainly going to be interesting to see how matters play out in the coming weeks and months. Argentina has become a new headache for the fund that it would probably rather do without.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Grigera does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new government of Alberto Fernandez must now deal with Argentina’s least favourite international organisation.Juan Grigera, Lecturer in the Political Economy of Development, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639572016-09-27T09:21:19Z2016-09-27T09:21:19ZLessons for Jeremy Corbyn from the world’s left-wingers and populists<p><em>Jeremy Corbyn <a href="https://theconversation.com/jeremy-corbyn-wins-again-heres-what-happens-now-65432">has been re-elected</a> leader of the UK’s Labour Party, with overwhelming grassroots support. Here, four experts look at how movement politics have changed countries around the world – and some of the pitfalls their leaders have faced.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Argentina: the struggles of Kirchnerismo</h2>
<p><strong>Pia Riggirozzi, University of Southampton</strong></p>
<p>Once Jeremy Corbyn had easily seen off Owen Smith’s leadership challenge, he heartily reiterated his intention to give more power to “the people”, to “do things differently”, and to “build a more just and decent society”. These promises put a decidedly leftist spin on the Labour Party, staking out a defiantly leftist plot of political turf in the UK. But they also stake out a role in the global resistance to neoliberalism. </p>
<p>When Corbyn first won the Labour leadership in September 2015, he drew effusive praise from the then-president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who <a href="http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/198591/cfk-praises-corbyns-victory-as-triumph-of-hope-">described his victory</a> as a “triumph of hope”, and a victory for those “putting politics at the service of people and the economy at the service of the well-being of all citizens”.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139264/original/image-20160926-31847-1q50clk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1104&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Kirchners in their prime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACristina_con_baston_y_banda.jpg">P. N. Argentina/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Effusive praise indeed from someone of such standing on the global left. For 12 years, Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband Néstor led Argentina as a part of a global challenge to neoliberalism, one driven by electorates that refused to accept parties committed to free markets. </p>
<p>The Kirchners’ agenda, known as <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21676824-and-beginning-saner-economic-policies-perhaps-end-kirchnerismo">Kirchnerismo</a>, depended on rising commodity prices and strong commercial and financial links with China to focus efforts on Argentina’s poor. Under their stewardship, Argentina <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/10/social-programmes-here-to-stay-in-argentina/">tackled poverty</a>, introduced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/sep/05/argentina-child-allowance-poor-schools">universal child benefits</a>, and extended civil rights such as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/americas/16argentina.html">same-sex marriage</a>. </p>
<p>But the Kirchner era was highly divisive. To some, it was a real commitment to prosperity and justice, but for others, it was an embrace of quasi-authoritarian state-led interventionism that fostered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/jan/24/argentina-peso-devaluation-blue-dollar-tourism">misconceived exchange rate policies</a>, <a href="http://panampost.com/belen-marty/2014/07/24/argentina-devours-energy-subsidies-budget-in-six-months/">ruinous energy subsidies</a> and an unsustainable <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/06/argentinas-economy">fiscal deficit</a>. </p>
<p>With the economy slowing and inflation worsening, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s successor was defeated in the November 2015 election. The country swung towards political and economic conservatism and elected <a href="https://theconversation.com/argentina-departs-from-the-kirchner-model-but-mauricio-macri-now-has-to-govern-a-divided-nation-51060">Mauricio Macri</a>, who has already started mending fences with the neoliberal financial agents – including the IMF the Kirchneristas so despised – while showing worrying signs of authoritarianism in his approach to social and political opposition.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Spain: Podemos on the wane?</h2>
<p><strong>Georgina Blakeley, The Open University</strong></p>
<p>A left-wing movement and political party which <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-ready-for-a-new-kind-of-left-wing-politics-33511">burst on to the Spanish political scene</a> in 2014, Podemos (“we can”) has fallen on hard times of late. Its leadership is <a href="http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2016/09/20/actualidad/1474365298_939669.html">deeply and publicly divided</a>, and the party elite is increasingly seen as centralist and distant by its grassroots activists, who are struggling to maintain momentum within their local assemblies (or “circles”). </p>
<p>These divisions come down to disagreements over strategy. After two general elections that have failed to produce a government, the Spanish electorate is growing increasingly weary of politics and politicians – and the prospect of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/spain-is-a-third-election-in-a-year-on-the-horizon-63681">third general election</a> won’t help. </p>
<p>Podemos tried to make inroads by forming an electoral alliance with the United Left party under the name Unidos Podemos, but it failed to boost the left’s performance in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/26/spanish-elections-exit-polls-show-deadlock-likely-to-continue">June 2016 general election</a>: Unidos Podemos retained the same number of seats as in the December 2015 general election, but its share of the vote declined by approximately 1m voters.</p>
<p>The dilemma is: does Podemos move to the centre, possibly in alliance with the Socialist Party, to try to seduce those voters who still regard it with distrust, or does Podemos shore up support among those activists and voters who fuelled its initial success but are now increasingly disenchanted by what they see as the continuous dilution of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Spain">the 15M</a> [anti-autsterity] spirit of Podemos? </p>
<p>Podemos’ results in the <a href="http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2016/09/25/actualidad/1474807081_234283.html">Basque and Galician elections</a> did little to clear the fog. Mario Cuomo’s dictum rings true: politicians campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Thailand: the Thaksinites thwarted</h2>
<p><strong>Brian Klaas, London School of Economics</strong></p>
<p>In 2001, populist politics came to Thailand when former police officer-turned-billionaire media mogul Thaksin Shinawatra became prime minister. </p>
<p>In his first term, Thaksin earned major popular support both within Bangkok and in the agricultural centres of north-east Thailand for his signature programmes of reducing poverty and providing universal, low-cost healthcare for Thais. His party, initially founded as the Thai Rak Thai party, became known by the colloquial term “Red Shirts”. That name came from the colour worn by protesters whenever they took to the streets in support of his regime against more conservative elements in Thai society, such as the Democrat Party or the People’s Alliance for Democracy (known as “Yellow Shirts”). </p>
<p>Thaksin’s charisma and populist leadership style carried him to re-election in 2005, but he could not escape the cycle of military coups d'état that continually keeps Thailand away from full democracy. Thanks to his populism – which his critics decry as corrupt, crony patronage politics – he and his party are still Thailand’s most popular political tendency, but his populist legacy isn’t one tied to a coherent political project or ideology. Instead, it’s much more about prioritising state spending on his network of supporters rather than the Democrat Party’s rival network. </p>
<p>That rivalry was Thaksin’s downfall. On September 19 2006, the Thai military intervened and toppled Thaksin; he has been in exile since 2008. His sister Yingluck later took up his mantle and served as prime minister from August 2011 until she was also removed in a coup d'état by the Thai military in May 2014.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Thaksin managed to activate dormant political constituencies in the countryside and turn them into a popular movement – but in the end, that movement entrenched a political culture that still tends toward patronage rather than robust and detailed policy.</p>
<hr>
<h2>South Africa: Malema on the march</h2>
<p><strong>Daniel Conway, University of Westminster</strong></p>
<p>If you want to provoke a strong reaction about politics from a South African, mention left-wing firebrand Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party. Citing Marxism-Leninism and Frantz Fanon while extolling the anti-white policies of the Zimbabwean government and admiring Hugo Chavez, the EFF demands full redistribution of land from the white community to the black majority without compensation and the wholesale nationalisation of mines and banks.</p>
<p>To some, Malema is just what the governing African National Congress (ANC) deserves for failing to improve the prospects of the poor while cosying up to big business and allowing the white minority to dominate the economy. To others, Malema is an irresponsible extremist and a threat to South Africa’s economy and democracy.</p>
<p>Before he was expelled as leader of the ANC Youth League, Malema promised to “<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/julius-sello-malema#sthash.fF5lpfLa.dpuf">take up arms and kill</a>” for President Jacob Zuma – but he’s now become one of Zuma’s loudest critics, heckling his state of the nation address from the floor of parliament and successfully taking him to the Constitutional Court to reclaim money fraudulently spent on the president’s private residence, Nkandla. </p>
<p>Upon winning 6% of the vote in the 2014 general election, the EFF’s 25 MPs announced they wouldn’t wear suits in parliament, describing them as <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-coded-clothes-of-south-africas-economic-freedom-fighters/375366/">the clothes of European imperialists</a>; instead they sport red jumpsuits and the headgear of either miners or domestic workers. This and other populist stunts have continually kept Malema and his followers in the headlines.</p>
<p>But the EFF isn’t the ANC’s main opposition: in the latest municipal elections, it was the centre-right Democratic Alliance that gained the most ground, <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-elections-politics-shuffled-but-not-transformed-63481">forcing the ANC from power</a> in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. Malema has not broken the mould of South African politics, though he has helped loosen the ANC’s near-stranglehold on the black vote. But South Africa’s proportional electoral system, ongoing poverty and still-stark racial inequality may well mean the EFF wields greater political influence for years yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pia Riggirozzi have received funding from ESRC-DfID (grant/s on Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration: SADC and UNASUR Health Policies)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Klaas, Daniel Conway, and Georgina Blakeley do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labour’s leader has a renewed mandate to put his party at the vanguard of the left – but others have walked that road before.Georgina Blakeley, Senior Lecturer in Politics, The Open UniversityBrian Klaas, LSE Fellow in Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political ScienceDaniel Conway, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, University of WestminsterPia Riggirozzi, Associate Professor in Global Politics, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510602015-11-23T16:48:36Z2015-11-23T16:48:36ZArgentina departs from the Kirchner model, but Mauricio Macri now has to govern a divided nation<p>Opposition candidate <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-34899227">Mauricio Macri</a> has won a comfortable victory in Argentina’s presidential elections. He will take office on December 10 as head of the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition.</p>
<p>This political group is made up of strange bedfellows, including Macri’s conservative Republican Proposal party (PRO), social democrats, and the Radical Civic Union. The parties have worked together in a bid to oust Cristina Kirchner after three consecutive administrations by the Frente para la Victoria (FpV) party.</p>
<p>Macri won 51.5% of the vote, while his opponent Daniel Scioli won 48.5% for the FpV. This in a second round prompted by both failing to secure 45% of the vote in a first round held in October.</p>
<p>In electing Macri, the people have voted for a shift to the centre right. He has a mandate to introduce pro-market policies and move away from a state-controlled economy. He has also indicated that he would take a different approach to negotiating with Argentina’s international creditors and seek to build bridges with the US rather than continuing associations with “rogue” states such as Venezuela, Iran and Russia. Significantly, after Kirchner’s bellicose approach to Malvinas/Falklands question, he has also dismissed Argentina’s claim on the islands as little more than “an additional deficit” for a financially struggling nation. </p>
<p>Despite protests that such policies would cause economic chaos, loss of social benefits and sovereignty, Scioli failed to convince voters to stick with the Kirchner model. </p>
<p>Like many other countries in the region, Argentina has ridden a “pink tide” of leftist politics for more than a decade. Parties such as the FpV rose to power promising an end to the elite politics of the 1990s. But these projects have been seriously undermined in recent years.</p>
<p>Argentina recovered from the 2001 economic crisis – one of the worst in its history – under the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, who led the country from 2003. Under his wife Cristina, who took over in 2007, the nation made significant progress on <a href="http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/134768/argentina-says-poverty-levels-have-declined">reducing poverty</a>, introduced same-sex marriage and a universal child benefit plan as well as higher pensions.</p>
<p>Despite her critics, Kirchner has mostly maintained Argentina’s economic progress in the face of global recession. She has also led a strong human rights crusade, encouraging the prosecution of military and civilians suspected of taking part in the “disappearing” of some 30,000 alleged dissidents during military rule.</p>
<p>The Kirchners focused their efforts on Argentina’s poor, and could afford to do so because of rising commodity prices and strong commercial and financial links with China. This funded welfare expansions, job creation and poverty reduction policies. Most of these far-reaching social programmes were undertaken in the context of serious international crisis and a relentless capital flight.</p>
<p>But the Kirchner administrations systematically concentrated executive authority. Both presidents stood accused of turning their backs on consensual negotiations and weakening political institutions. Political polarisation has grown particularly severe between the government and the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/grains-argentina-strike-idUSL5N0YC31U20150521">agricultural industry</a>.</p>
<p>Increasing inflationary pressures and accusations of government interventionism and corruption eroded support for Kirchnerism. The government acted as though social rights such as welfare support could be sought at the expense of political rights.</p>
<h2>Time for change</h2>
<p>The electorate has given Macri a mandate to rebuild the democratic mechanisms that have been jeopardised under the current administration and regain a place for Argentina on the international stage. As 48% of the population still back the Kirchner model any reform will have to involve consensus building.</p>
<p>Macri has many challenges ahead, not least because he has to govern a divided nation. The PRO and its allies are still in a minority in Congress, where the FpV remains strong. In the senate it still has the majority. He will have to design a parliamentary strategy to keep the Cambiemos alliance in tact in the face of pressure from the opposition.</p>
<p>As in many countries in South America, the legacy of the pink tide in Argentina is marked by significant social improvements, universal rights and more equitable distribution of wealth. Macri must bear this in mind when introducing more pro-market policies. He will leave himself vulnerable to his opponents if he compromises the rights of workers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pia Riggirozzi receives funding from ESRC- DFID for the project 'Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration: a Comparative Study of UNASUR and SADC Health Policies' (ES/L005336/1)</span></em></p>Victory for centre right candidate brings an end to decades of leftist rule.Pia Riggirozzi, Associate Professor in Global Politics, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/501052015-11-23T06:27:12Z2015-11-23T06:27:12ZArgentine election: the Kirchners’ Falklands policy has backfired spectacularly<p>For the first time in 12 years, the new occupant of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, will no longer bear the surname Kirchner.</p>
<p>This is the constitutionally mandated end of a political chapter that began with the <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/1788367">election of Nestor Kirchner</a> as president in 2003 – and which survived the political <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/29/argentina.rorycarroll">succession of his wife Cristina</a> in 2007, Nestor’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10627873">death</a> three years later, and Cristina’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/cristina-kirchner-win-argentina-elections">re-election</a> in 2011.</p>
<p>Many on the centre-left of Argentine politics will fear the gradual rolling back of the popular (and populist) social welfare measures that have defined “<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21676824-and-beginning-saner-economic-policies-perhaps-end-kirchnerismo">Kirchnerismo</a>”. Many on the political right will scent an opportunity to tackle corruption and resuscitate the zombie-like Argentine economy, which has been dogged by defaults on international loans and the manipulation of <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21548242">official economic data</a>.</p>
<p>For Falkland Islanders, the political passing of the Kirchners might seem justifiable cause for raucous celebrations in the pubs and government offices of Stanley. After all, their lives and livelihoods have been hit hard by aggressive Argentine policies during the Kirchner years. </p>
<p>Trade links between the Falklands and Latin America have been curtailed, vital cruise ship tourism has been threatened and the Argentine government has sought to turn the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/las-malvinas-or-falkland-islands-british-or-argentinean-6106">Malvinas</a>” dispute into a pan-Latin American fight against the last vestiges of colonialism. </p>
<p>And yet, over the same period, the Falkland Islands has engineered a remarkable social, political, cultural and economic revival. The islands’ government, far from succumbing to Kirchnerismo measures, has been emboldened by it, with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner an ideal (if unintentional) villain.</p>
<h2>Blind alley</h2>
<p>The direction of travel for Kirchnerismo foreign policy was clear from the outset. As soon as Nestor took power, the policy of automatic alignment with the US was ditched in favour of stronger ties with Russia, China and Latin American neighbours and the government quickly began prioritising the distinctively “southern” concerns of its <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/9076133/The-Argentine-president-and-her-empire-in-the-south.html">Patagonian leaders</a>. </p>
<p>Within months of Nestor’s inauguration, his government proposed discussions with the UK over scheduled flights from Argentina to the Falkland Islands. This seemingly reasonable suggestion came with two rather important caveats: that any discussions would be strictly bilateral ones between the UK and Argentine governments and that all charter flights to and from the Falklands would, with immediate effect, be <a href="https://falklandsnews.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/argentina-to-negotiate-with-the-falkland-islands-government/">banned from passing through Argentine airspace</a>.</p>
<p>Bilateralism deliberately excluded Falkland Islanders from participating in discussions on their own future; the charter flights issue revealed a new willingness in Argentina to undermine the Falklands’ economy by restricting connections to other countries. Unsurprisingly, the negotiations never took place.</p>
<p>Four years later, in 2007, the Nestor Kirchner government scrapped the “Joint Declaration” (signed in 1995) that had <a href="http://fiassociation.com/shopimages/pdfs/7.%25201995%2520Joint%2520Declaration%2520on%2520Cooperation%2520Over%2520Offshore%2520Activities%2520in%2520the%2520South%2520West%2520Atlantic..pdf">guaranteed joint UK-Argentine cooperation in oil hydrocarbon exploration</a> in the southwest Atlantic. Energy companies active in the Falkland Islands were, in turn, banned from also operating in Argentina.</p>
<p>Cristina de Kirchner has continued her late husband’s approach. In December 2011, the other Mercosur countries agreed, at her urging, to <a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2011/12/29/falklands-flagged-vessels-another-diplomatic-victory-for-president-fernandez">close their ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flag</a>. This was followed in 2012 by a ban on all British-flagged ships (including Royal Navy vessels on official tours) entering the province of Buenos Aires. In 2013, it was announced that oil executives linked to drilling in the Falklands <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/28/argentina-jail-threat-over-falklands-drilling">would be arrested</a> if they set foot in Argentina.</p>
<p>Running alongside these economic sanctions, Cristina has thrown her weight behind high-profile public campaigns that have both pushed Argentine sovereignty claims and challenged islanders’ claims to self-determination. Many of these have been developed by <a href="https://twitter.com/FilmusDaniel">Daniel Filmus</a>, a loyal Cristina supporter and Argentina’s first Secretaría de Asuntos Relativos a las Islas Malvinas (Secretary for Matters Relating to the Malvinas Islands). She has courted <a href="https://rhulgeopolitics.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/celebrity-geopolitics/">celebrity endorsements</a> for Argentina’s cause and publicised them widely – often on her <a href="https://twitter.com/cfkargentina">own Twitter account</a>.</p>
<p>She has offered the presidential seal of approval to TV and newspaper adverts that deal with the issue, including a <a href="https://rhulgeopolitics.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/383/">secretly filmed advert</a> which showed Argentine Olympic hopeful Fernando Zylberberg “training” on the Falkland Islands during the run up to the London Olympics in 2012. The ad was notable for its complete and rather eerie absence of Falkland Islanders.</p>
<p>And yet, for all the Kirchners’ hard and soft geopolitics, the Falkland Islands have arguably never been economically stronger, more politically determined or more diplomatically confident. </p>
<h2>Growing confidence</h2>
<p>Falkland Island waters, already home to well-managed and sustainable fisheries, may well yield <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11545640/Race-is-on-to-tap-1bn-barrels-of-oil-in-the-Falkland-Islands.html">substantial hydrocarbon resources</a> in the not-too-distant future. The <a href="http://www.falklands.gov.fk/self-governance/the-constitution/">revised 2008 Constitution</a> has strengthened the Falklands as a democratic and self-governing territory and the <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0032247413000326">2013 Referendum</a> provided both a resounding commitment to remaining a British Overseas Territory but also a globally visible demonstration of Falkland Islands self-determination at work. </p>
<p>On the diplomatic stage, too, islanders have met Argentina’s challenge and have proven to be articulate spokespeople at the UN and elsewhere. Younger islanders have been particularly effective advocates on social media, sharing their message <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfdx4Nwl3TQ">in Spanish</a> as well as English.</p>
<p>Far from squeezing the economic life out of the islands, the Kirchner years have turned them into a media-savvy and politically active community. With their vote-chasing grandstanding, the Kirchners have turned one and perhaps two generations of Falkland Islanders <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/windswept-remotewho-would-want-to-live-in-the-falkland-islands-8577203.html">firmly against any kind of co-operation</a> with Argentina. </p>
<p>Herein lies the lesson for the Kirchners’ successor. Until Argentina once again treats the Falklands-Malvinas issue as both a diplomatic and fundamentally human problem and not an object of domestic political opportunism, the islanders will continue to turn away from their nearest neighbour and forge their own future.</p>
<p>As the Argentine political scientist Carlos Escude <a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2014/11/12/falklands-malvinas-current-policy-is-a-losing-option-and-leads-nowhere">conceded</a>: “If policy was intelligent we could discuss agreements that could bring certain benefits to Argentina. What we have currently generates no benefit at all. It has become a problem for a long list of governments to come.”</p>
<p>Reversing this position will not be easy. The incoming president will need a new vision for the South Atlantic – and the political strength to change course.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alasdair Pinkerton has received funding from the ESRC, the Shackleton Scholarship Fund, and was an Accredited Academic Observer of the Falkland Islands referendum in 2013.</span></em></p>With 12 years of vote-winning diplomatic stunts, the Kirchners have galvanised the Falkland Islanders against Argentina for years to come.Alasdair Pinkerton, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/496742015-10-26T15:06:52Z2015-10-26T15:06:52ZShock result forces Argentine election to second round – and threatens humiliation for Scioli<p>With the race to succeed Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at a fever pitch, Argentina is suddenly <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-34634210">facing its first ever presidential runoff</a>. </p>
<p>Against all predictions, the provisional results from the first round show the ruling Victory Front (VF) candidate Daniel Scioli with a tight lead of 36.78%, followed by the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition with 34.40%. Former Kirchner ally <a href="http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/201611/meet-the-candidates-sergio-massa">Sergio Massa</a> of A New Alternative (UNA) was eliminated with just over 21%. </p>
<p>This is a pretty remarkable result. Turnout was high by Argentine standards, at over 80%, and all the opinion polls were radically wide of the mark. Although a second round was thought to be likely, no one anticipated this tight a race.</p>
<p>Kirchner’s VF remains the most important force in parliament, improving its existing majority of the senate and remaining the largest faction in the lower chamber. But it suffered a humiliating loss in Buenos Aires province, where Eugenia Vidal of Let’s Change became the first non-Peronist governor to win there since the first post-authoritarian election in 1983. More embarrassingly still, her predecessor was Scioli himself.</p>
<p>These failures prove that although Kichnerism has become a powerful political identity, its standard-bearers can still lose elections if they end up fighting among themselves.</p>
<h2>Uneasy bedfellows</h2>
<p>Daniel Scioli was not an obvious choice of candidate. Given he’s always stuck to his own opinions and was a protégé of disgraced neoliberal president <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/carlos-menem-argentinas-former-president-on-trial-for-derailing-investigation-into-1994-bombing-of-10444287.html">Carlos Menem</a>, “Kirchnerista” hardliners have always regarded him with deep suspicion. Nonetheless, he has stayed loyal to Nestor and Cristina, serving in high office first as Nestor’s vice-president and then as governor of Buenos Aires during Cristina’s two terms. </p>
<p>By endorsing Scioli, Cristina has managed to keep her governing coalition from splitting completely into “Sciolista” and Kirchnerista camps, but she was unable to prevent the defection of <a href="http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/201611/meet-the-candidates-sergio-massa">Sergio Massa</a>, who at just 36 years old served as Cristina’s former Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers. UNA’s first round votes are now up for grabs, and could well decide the overall outcome in round two. </p>
<p>So is this result the fault of an underperforming Scioli, or the work of a surging opposition? The short answer is a bit of both.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/11954415/Who-is-Mauricio-Macri.html">Mauricio Macri</a>, the son of an Italian migrant and prominent businessman, constructed a successful new political party (PRO) which developed solid bases in Buenos Aires city, winning consecutive elections since 2007. Together with the traditional UCR and other smaller parties, his alliance Let’s Change (Cambiemos) achieved an extraordinary election result by moving away from their original radically pro-market platforms – a wise move indeed. </p>
<h2>Running out of steam</h2>
<p>Many of the Kirchner era’s banner initiatives have worked hard to meet the unfulfilled social demands of the neoliberal 1990s, and by doing so, the Kirchners have forged a strong political identity of combative resistence against neoliberalism in all its forms.</p>
<p>But the antagonism that founded Argentina and Latin America’s “post-neoliberal consensus” has been all but exhausted. Voters are making new demands of their leaders, and in its current form, Kirchnerism has proved unable to address them fully. That much is apparent in Scioli’s inability to close the deal. He has failed to speak to the demands of the urban middle class, indigenous people, and communities affected by major mining projects, who are clamouring for better living standards and new curbs on the excesses of extractive industries. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-chinese-slowdown-will-hit-global-growth-46655">slow growth in China</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34088144">recession in Brazil</a> mean that the prospect of quick recovery of commodity prices and foreign investment looks uncertain. This means that the Argentine economy will struggle to return to fast rates experienced over the past decade or so. </p>
<p>For his part, Macri seems to have a rather better grasp of the new landscape, in particular the interests of the new middle class – whose living standards, paradoxically enough, have actually recovered and improved under the Kirchners’ employment-focused macroeconomic policies. </p>
<p>The first round vote was conducted in an atmosphere of general sense of normality, with Argentina’s Pumas playing in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals on the same day. But the tight result at last stirred things up. Everyone is now on notice: Argentina’s hard-won post-neoliberal consensus might, against all predictions, actually be at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Pablo Ferrero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A surprise near-tie has put everyone in Argentine politics on high alert. Is the Kirchner legacy in danger?Juan Pablo Ferrero, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/456662015-08-11T12:19:40Z2015-08-11T12:19:40ZAll change in Argentina as sun sets on the Kirchner era<p>Argentina’s open presidential primary is over, and the stage is now set for the election in October. With the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, constitutionally barred from running again, the autumn poll looks set to be a fight between Argentina’s two main political coalitions.</p>
<p>On the left is Daniel Scioli, the current governor of Buenos Aires province, who leads the official Peronist party <a href="http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/196020/victory-front-candidate-daniel-scioli-leads-presidential-primary-argentina-has-chosen-its-way">Front for Victory</a>. He is Cristina de Kirchner’s candidate of choice, though has stayed shy of taking on an explicitly Kirchnerist political identity. On the right is the current mayor of Buenos Aires, <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/bullets-pastries-and-rise-right-mauricio-macri-struggles-recover-mysterious-death">Mauricio Macri</a>; he heads a coalition of strange bedfellows called Cambiemos (Let’s Change), which comprises Macri’s conservative Republican Proposal party, social democrats, and the Radical Civic Union.</p>
<p>The primary system pits all the parties’ candidates against each other in one poll to determine who runs in the general election. Scioli and the Front for Victory got the biggest share with more than <a href="http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-279055-2015-08-10.html">38%</a>. That sets him up well for the elections in October, bodes well for the nation’s verdict on the highly contentious and deeply personalised Kirchnerist legacy.</p>
<h2>Twilight</h2>
<p>When Fernández de Kirchner’s term ends in December 2015, she and her late husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner, who ruled from 2003-7, will have enjoyed the longest unbroken presidential tenure since Argentina became a democracy, in the course of which they left a profound mark on their country. As Juan and Eva Peron did before them, the Kirchners have managed to establish a political style that will bear their name long after Cristina finally leaves office. </p>
<p>The political project now known as Kirchnerismo (Kirchnerism) is undoubtedly very <a href="http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/06/150622_argentina_cristina_fernandez_popularidad_irm">divisive</a>. For some, it stands for a return (at least in aspiration) to economic growth, prosperity, and the expansion of citizenship rights, all led by the state. For others, it represents a corrupt quasi-authoritarianism, combined with cynical populism and meddlesome state intervention. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the <a href="http://www.coha.org/cristina-fernandez-de-kirchner-wins-re-election-by-a-landslide-2/">expansion</a> of rights and welfare provision under the Kirchners has been so widely welcomed in Argentina that none of this election’s contenders dares to challenge it. And with such a strong consensus on a big tranche of Kirchner-era social policy, the campaign might fast descend into a game of character mudslinging.</p>
<p>That’s partly a factor of the weakness of the candidates themselves. De Kirchner has failed to cultivate a strong heir, and the opposition isn’t faring much better. Cambiemos, for its part, has not developed a convincing and comprehensive political platform to take Argentina in a new direction. </p>
<p>All it seems able to do is mount fierce attacks on the personal and political style of Fernández de Kirchner and her entourage – something the last few years have hardly made difficult.</p>
<h2>Counting the days</h2>
<p>Throughout their 12 years in office, the Kirchners have been dogged by accusations of corruption, which have badly eroded Fernández de Kirchner’s popularity and legitimacy. Things have only gotten worse in recent years. <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/04/cronyism-and-corruption-are-killing-economic-freedom-in-argentina">Discontent and distrust</a> have grown under Kirchnerist statism, with its apparent reluctance to protect private property, and alleged propensity to favour government cronies with subsidies and contracts.</p>
<p>Conflicts with the media and opposition media groups have also led Argentine investigative reporter <a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2013/05/15/allegations-of-a-network-of-corruption-money-involves-former-president-kirchner">Jorge Lanata</a> to investigate a possible network of international bank accounts and unaccounted wealth connected with the state. </p>
<p>Things reached a fever pitch when prosecutor <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-going-on-in-argentina-with-president-fernandez-de-kirchner-37291">Alberto Nisman</a> was found dead in his apartment on January 18 2015. His body was discovered just hours before a judicial inquiry was expecting to examine claims that Fernández de Kirchner and her foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, tried to cover up <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/world/americas/18argentina.html?pagewanted=all">Iran’s role</a> in the country’s deadliest ever terrorist attack. Nisman’s case against Fernández de Kirchner and Timerman was <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-judges-decline-to-take-on-charges-against-argentina-president/2625544.html">dismissed on February 2</a>, but it dealt a heavy blow to the government’s credibility and authority.</p>
<p>Adding to the twilight atmosphere is a seriously beleagured economy. Some pessimists are even predicting collapse, a forecast born of creeping <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-07/argentina-economy-can-t-take-40-percent-inflation-massa">inflation</a>, slow to non-existent <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/argentina/overview">growth</a>, a serious dependence on commodities markets, and a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/20/argentina-debt-default-lawyers-court-pay-clause">deeply destructive default</a>.</p>
<p>Detractors of Fernández de Kirchner, and Kirchnerism, want Argentina to save itself from true disaster with a <a href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2015/04/15/argentina-returns-to-capital-markets/">return to capital markets</a>, even becoming a major <a href="http://www.ftadviser.com/2015/05/11/investments/emerging-markets/fresh-leaders-may-revitalise-argentina-019aHOefF5suvQDhUrEW0K/article.html">regional economic power again</a> if the right economic policies are implemented and sustained. Such accommodation with global neoliberalism would mark the true end of the Kirchnerist project.</p>
<h2>A lasting legacy</h2>
<p>Latin American politics expert <a href="http://archivo.larepublica.pe/columnistas/aproximaciones/el-fin-del-giro-a-la-izquierda-05-04-2015">Steven Levitsky argued</a> that we might in fact be facing “the end of the left in Latin America”. The commodity boom has all but ended, and many of the leftist movements that rode it to power in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are running out of steam after too many years in power.</p>
<p>But what this analysis misses is the depth of the left’s legacy – a plethora of policies for social inclusion, citizenship and rights that has left a deep imprint on the continent. Kirchner-era Argentina, for its part, has taken bold steps to widen its social safety net and citizenship rights. Targeted cash transfer programmes, which were initially short-term, were extended by the plan <a href="http://www.telam.com.ar/tags/4710-argentina-trabaja/noticias">Argentina Trabaja</a>, supporting co-operative enterprises in poor neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>Cristina’s government also introduced a targeted programme for children, the Universal Child Benefit (<a href="http://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201405/63171-cristina-fernandez-de-kirchner-salon-mujeres-de-casa-de-gobierno-cadena-nacional-anuncios.html">Asignación Universal por Hijo</a> or AUH). It’s not the country’s first child benefit scheme, but it covers the population on an unprecedented scale. The AUH provides around 200 Argentine pesos (US$50) a month to nearly 4m children and families, and 80% of Argentina’s children now receive some form of child benefit. </p>
<p>For the first time, the government is extending welfare programmes directly to children and to workers who are not unionised. In fact, most beneficiaries will be self-employed or in the informal economy – groups that were particularly active in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/20/world/reeling-from-riots-argentina-declares-a-state-of-siege.html">protests of 2001</a>. </p>
<p>The Fernández de Kirchner government also introduced a “reasonable” minimum wage for non-unionised workers (including domestic workers) in 2008, and has put pressure on private health companies to extend their coverage and reduce their charges. An anti-poverty strategy has brought poverty down to <a href="http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/134768/argentina-says-poverty-levels-have-declined">around 25%</a> from more than 50% in the wake the 2001-02 economic crisis.</p>
<p>In this scenario, it is not surprising that the poor voters who have benefited from state largesse over the past eight years remain loyal to the Kirchnerist project. This explains why Scioli is riding high, for now at least. His ascendance is a sign that despite all the problems they and their country have faced, the Kirchners have managed to construct a legacy of inclusion and social rights that may yet endure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pia Riggirozzi receives funding from ESRC for the project 'Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration: The case of SADC and UNASUR Health Policies'.</span></em></p>As the candidates line up to succeed Argentina’s term-limited president, her legacy is starting to become clear. Will it endure?Pia Riggirozzi, Associate Professor in Global Politics, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/377812015-02-25T06:27:32Z2015-02-25T06:27:32ZArgentina protests: middle class marchers move in the shadows – and on social media<p><a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-31515822">Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires</a> to protest the <a href="https://theconversation.com/argentina-crisis-citizens-suffer-when-loyalty-means-more-than-truth-37557">death of Alberto Nisman</a>, a prosecutor who was investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in the capital. He was about to present evidence to parliament of a cover-up involving President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner – and whether his death was suicide or homicide is still under investigation. </p>
<p>The protests have become a mass movement against the Kirchner’s rule, and her approval rating has <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/uk-argentina-prosecutor-idUKKBN0LR1Y820150223">dropped below 30%</a>. That has predictably led her to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/21/argentinian-president-hits-out-lawmakers-over-rally-for-alberto-nisman">claim</a> that the protests are a political attempts to destabilise her government. </p>
<p>This claim should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, Argentina has a healthy tradition of public mobilisation to demand accountability from the state. It was cemented during the transition to democracy in the early 1980s, when the political agenda was topped by truth and justice for the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/topsecret-files-shed-new-light-on-argentinas-dirty-war-8923307.html">victims of the dictatorship</a>. </p>
<p>But what is clearly true is that today’s uprisings are a very different beast from the uprisings that spurred democratisation in the 1980s or the mass social protests that beset Argentina during the 1990s. </p>
<h2>All fired up</h2>
<p>In particular, they could scarcely be more different from the resistance that greeted Carlos Menem’s privatisation of national oil company <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17740393">YPF</a>, later renationalised under de Kirchner. </p>
<p>Those protests gave birth to the <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0012.206/--piquetero-movement-organizing-for-democracy-and-social?rgn=main;view=fulltext">Piquetero</a> movement. In their protests demanding welfare payments for laid-off workers, the Piqueteros <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3cU5ELUxXAEC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=piqueteros+roadblocks&source=bl&ots=tP9Bz1OqQS&sig=9d_nLucFNm30N8l9OqNcJwXJLMU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5ZbsVMHUJuSC7gaGs4DYCQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=piqueteros%20roadblocks&f=false">used roadblocks</a> as their central means of protest. Unemployed workers gathered in a variety of different organisations and movements, <a href="https://militantz.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/los-piqueteros-road-blocks-argentinian-style/">organising stand-ins for scaled-back public services</a>, while sympathisers gathered in exciting but short-lived neighbourhood assemblies, banging pots and pans from balconies. </p>
<p>Today’s movement, by contrast, is a solidly middle-class and urban one – but that is not to say it doesn’t have widespread support. Thanks to Argentines’ <a href="http://www.statista.com/statistics/284401/argentina-social-network-penetration/">healthy use of social media</a>, the post-Nisman demonstrations have taken on a viral dimension; the mainstream mass media, has shifted from reporting the protests to actively supporting them. </p>
<p>Today’s protests have also taken a far more explicitly patriotic tone than their predecessors in earlier years, marked by the exuberant display of the national flag and the singing of the national anthem. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72613/original/image-20150220-21924-ucm4x4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taking it to the streets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.epa.eu/politics-photos/citizens-initiative-recall-photos/protest-demanding-for-justice-in-case-of-the-death-of-argentinean-attorney-nisman-in-buenos-aires-photos-51769903">EPA/Juan Ignacio Roncoroni</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But perhaps the most striking difference is that today’s protesters are trying to avoid identifying themselves.</p>
<p>The Piquetero identity arose out of a search for dignity in the struggle against injustice, and its adherents wore it on their sleeves. The <a href="http://www.alternatives.ca/en/allies/central-de-trabajadores-de-la-argentina-argentina">Central de Trabajadores Argentinos</a>, for instance, did not take part in any protest without its flags and banners on full display. </p>
<p>But with a few exceptions, such as a protest organised by the powerful landowners association, today’s protesters are carefully hiding or not mentioning their identities. Participants are being asked not to carry visible evidence of partisanship. Of course, this has not stopped politicians, like Buenos Aires’ centre-right Presidential candidate and current chief of government, Mauricio Macri, from taking very visible places alongside them.</p>
<h2>Defend the republic?</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these protests are also voicing very different complaints to any Argentina has heard in recent years – to the extent they can actually be identified.</p>
<p>The main targets of the 1990s protests were clear: unemployment, poor public education, privatisation, pension cuts, and pro-market and austerity policies in general. While today’s protesters are clearly outraged at Nisman’s death and spoiling for some sort of sweeping change, their actual demands are much less clear-cut. </p>
<p>The grievances aired on social media and reported by the mass media run the gamut from judicial and constitutional reform, attempts to allow the president a third consecutive term, the country’s risk of “becoming Venezuela”, and corruption, to name but a few. The most repeated grievances are related to “institutions” and “the defence of the republic”.</p>
<p>For a short but powerful moment, the protests of the 1990s managed to articulate a range of demands from the unemployed and the middle classes alike, uniting their members against the common enemy of right-wing economics and social policy. By doing so, they managed to reconstruct the inclusive anti-establishment political identity known as the “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=w-9CBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=argentina+%22national-popular%22&source=bl&ots=UkePzo0Waq&sig=9Sw9kpLm9uqnmBLar_IPk6RiMbI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JBHrVP6ZFI6v7AaM8YDwAg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=argentina%20%22national-popular%22&f=false">national-popular</a>” – a distinctively Argentine identity which the Kirchners rode into government, and which has permeated their rule. </p>
<p>In contrast, it’s still unclear what kind of political identity will emerge from the post-Nisman protests. Given their emphasis on state institutions over social problems, there is no reason to expect some new and inclusive kind of democratic politics to come out of them – as happened with the mass protests of previous decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Pablo Ferrero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Argentines have taken to the streets in their hundreds of thousands since the death of Alberto Nisman – but for what?Juan Pablo Ferrero, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/375572015-02-17T12:06:11Z2015-02-17T12:06:11ZArgentina crisis: citizens suffer when loyalty means more than truth<p>On February 18 2015, Argentina’s judicial community will assemble in a <a href="http://en.mercopress.com/2015/02/06/argentine-prosecutors-confirm-silence-march-marking-a-month-since-nisman-s-death">March of Silence</a> on the streets of Buenos Aires. No slogan, no noise – just silence.</p>
<p>The protest is a stand against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-going-on-in-argentina-with-president-fernandez-de-kirchner-37291">political crisis which has engulfed Argentina</a> since the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died the day before he was due to present his findings on the 1994 bombings of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires. </p>
<p>The chaos that has ensued shows how utterly disconnected Argentina’s political leadership is from the reality of its citizens’ lives. Nisman’s death was the drop that sent the cup running over.</p>
<h2>Smoke and mirrors</h2>
<p>Since the return of democracy in 1983, Argentina has struggled to build accountable and transparent institutions, with strong separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers. Judges directly appointed by the president are not uncommon, as is arbitrary and unaccountable presidential interference in the economy and society. </p>
<p>Argentinians have become accustomed to the unpredictability of daily life. Today, they may be able withdraw cash and buy US dollars; tomorrow they may not. Today, they may be able to receive <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25836208">overseas parcels from internet purchases</a>; tomorrow this may be restricted to two packages a year. </p>
<p>Citizens and businesses have been creative in surviving the arbitrariness of life imposed by their political leadership. I heard the case of one factory being registered in Brazil and its workers paid via bank accounts in Uruguay, while production took place in Argentina. This is not to avoid taxes or by-pass the law, but simply to survive and continue production activities in a byzantine world of complex and arbitrary regulations.</p>
<p>Nisman’s death was the tragic consequence of a corrupt, some would even say mafia-like, political system gone out of control. In her <a href="http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1767881-beatriz-sarlo-la-muerte-del-fiscal-nos-marca-para-siempre">address to the Senate</a> on February 11, Argentine literary critic Beatriz Sarlo said that while she saw sadness at the death of Perón, Alfonsín and Nestor Kirchner, the mourning at Nisman’s death is of another order: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>People cried on my shoulder and they cried on each other’s shoulders. It is a people who feel their destiny is subordinated to forces they do not know; it is a people who do not know if these forces can be mastered and overcome.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paradoxically, one of the strongest forces distorting and undermining Argentina’s integrity is an intense culture of loyalty. </p>
<h2>Loyal to the end</h2>
<p>Being loyal to another person and defending them at whatever cost – even the truth – is an entrenched hallmark of political life in Argentina. There is even a special day to affirm its value, <a href="http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/analysis/the-history-of-peronism-part-i/"><em>El Dia de la Lealtad</em></a> (Loyalty Day), celebrated every year since 1945 on October 17. </p>
<p>In addition to polarising Argentinian society, the ingrained logic of “you’re either with us or against us” blocks any search for compromise and trivialises honesty in public life. Loyalty to one’s chosen leader trumps the truth. </p>
<p>This tendency has serious economic consequences. </p>
<p>In its <a href="http://www.ilo.org/americas/publicaciones/panorama-laboral/WCMS_232760/lang--es/index.htm">Labour Panorama of Latin America</a>, the International Labour Organisation has refrained from publishing real wages data from Venezuela and Argentina. Since 2007, the Argentine National Office of Statistics has interfered with its inflation statistics. </p>
<p>In 2013, an interview between a Greek journalist and the Argentine minister of the economy <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10019443/I-want-to-leave-Interview-with-Argentina-Economy-Minister-Hernan-Lorenzino-goes-viral.html">went viral</a> when the minister said he did not know the inflation rate, and guessed it was probably around 10.2%. <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/16/370979773/argentinas-approach-to-inflation-ditch-the-peso-hoard-u-s-dollars">According to private economists’ estimates</a>, out-of-control and unaccountable government spending had led to a 40% annual inflation rate by the end of 2014. Argentina also has the highest proportion of public spending in relation to its GDP in the world, <a href="http://www.idesa.org/informes/976">estimated</a> to be 46%. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in 2014, <a href="http://servicios.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/2015/01/13/cuerpo-principal/007">something like 5m pesos per day</a> (about US$600,000) was spent on government publicity. A large proportion of the public budget is also spent through special extraordinary presidential decrees, outside legislative control.</p>
<p>Nisman has been the most public victim, but there are already many hidden and indirect victims of the corrupt political system: the young people who fall prey to the drug trade, those who pay the costs of macro-economic mismanagement, and those who suffer the lack of adequate public infrastructure and quality social services.</p>
<p>“<em>Nunca más</em>” (Never more) was the cry of the return of democracy in 1983. It’s now time to say it again: never more can people’s lives be sacrificed for the sake of a political ideology and loyalty. Next year will mark the bicentenary of Argentina’s independence from Spain. It would be a good year to replace the loyalty day with a day of truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Séverine Deneulin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On February 18 2015, Argentina’s judicial community will assemble in a March of Silence on the streets of Buenos Aires. No slogan, no noise – just silence. The protest is a stand against the political…Séverine Deneulin, Senior Lecturer in International Development, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/372912015-02-06T14:48:34Z2015-02-06T14:48:34ZExplainer: what is going on in Argentina with President Fernandez de Kirchner?<p>Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has announced plans to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-argentina-distrust-over-presidents-move-to-abolish-intelligence-agency/2015/01/27/c46c5b1e-a632-11e4-a162-121d06ca77f1_story.html">dissolve</a> her country’s intelligence services. President Fernandez de Kirchner’s move comes after the controversial death of a prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, who had accused her of attempting to cover up <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/world/americas/18argentina.html?pagewanted=all">Iran’s role</a> in the country’s deadliest ever terrorist attack: the bombing of the AMIA (the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society) in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people.</p>
<p>How did things get to this point, and how did Fernandez de Kirchner get into such terrible legal turmoil?</p>
<h2>Muddy waters</h2>
<p>Nisman had allegedly been investigating the AMIA bombing for over a decade. He finally brought things to a head in mid-January 2015, when he suddenly brought an indictment against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, for their suspected involvement in the cover-up.</p>
<p>Nisman was then found dead in his apartment on January 18 2015, just four days after serving the indictment and hours before a judicial inquiry was set to begin. His death was declared “suspicious” despite the fact that it seemed like a suicide – and the investigation into it has now turned up evidence he may have been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-31123457">planning to arrest Fernandez de Kirchner herself</a>.</p>
<p>Nisman’s allegations about the Iranian connection must be seen in a wider context. There has been a marked shift in Argentina’s <a href="http://newleftreview.org/II/52/emir-sader-the-weakest-link-neoliberalism-in-latin-america">policy towards Iran</a> since 2010, mainly led by Timerman, towards trade and diplomatic relations.</p>
<p>At the same time, Iran has been trying to raise its profile in Latin America in general as it looks for ways to ease the <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-nuclear-deal-will-come-down-to-economic-pressure-34668">pain of Western sanctions</a>. Tehran has forged close ties with leftist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia, and has been seeking trade agreements with Brazil for food imports.</p>
<p>While the shift to Iran, and the lack of judicial progress in the case of international terrorism striking the country still needs to be accounted for, the death of Nisman and the ensuing political chaos has raised profound concerns about the state of Argentina’s democracy.</p>
<p>Nisman’s case against Fernandez de Kirchner and Timerman was <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-judges-decline-to-take-on-charges-against-argentina-president/2625544.html">dismissed on February 2</a>. It relied heavily on transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Argentine negotiators and Iranian officials, and these recorded conversations – provided by the intelligence services – were found to be <a href="http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-265187-2015-02-01.html">inconclusive</a> and the case lacking in substantive evidence.</p>
<p>There are suspicions about whether this evidence was all it seemed, and worries that the intelligence service was up to its old tricks once again – muddying the waters of a highly sensitive case, or even supporting sinister plans to destabilise the government. </p>
<p>But those misgivings themselves show that whatever Fernandez de Kirchner’s real reason for doing it, the intelligence overhaul was undeniably long overdue.</p>
<h2>Toxic institutions</h2>
<p>During Argentina’s so-called <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/topsecret-files-shed-new-light-on-argentinas-dirty-war-8923307.html">Dirty War</a> in the 1970s and 80s, the intelligence services were dominated by the military, and acted as its instrument in the persecution of opposition leaders and social activists. </p>
<p>After democratisation began in 1983, the government of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/5090540/Raul-Alfonsin.html">Raul Alfonsin</a> was mainly focused on reforming two main enforcing agencies: the armed forces and the police. The intelligence services were left for later, despite the fact the secret services were still rampantly active, engaging in political disappearances and the extortion of prominent businessmen to “make up” for the dwindling demand for their services. </p>
<p>In part, this was just one of many difficulties facing a fledgling democracy that was struggling to achieve stability and self-confidence. But the intelligence services were also protected by the fact that even democratic governments found them very politically useful.</p>
<p>Taken at face value, then, Fernandez de Kirchner has done the right thing. Dismantling the intelligence services was necessary, a debt of democratisation in Argentina. And while passing the reform will require parliamentary endorsement, Kirchner’s Front for Victory party controls 39 of the 72 seats in the Senate and 130 of the 257 seats in the lower house, the changes will probably enjoy a smooth ride through both chambers.</p>
<p>But whether Fernandez de Kirchner’s newfound zeal for reform will do anything for the health of Argentina’s democracy is another question entirely.</p>
<h2>For democracy’s sake</h2>
<p>Instead of opening up engagement with the opposition, Fernandez de Kirchner’s swift intervention has become a piece of partisan grandstanding, and has all but trivialised the judicial process Nisman began. </p>
<p>It has also done nothing to dismiss suspicions about the president’s “real reasons” for dismantling the intelligence service, while sending party politics into a frenzied back-and-forth of accusations and denunciation.</p>
<p>The government stands accused of using Nisman’s case for partisan ends, dodging a major investigation into the president in an <a href="http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/argentinas-economy-and-2015-presidential-elections">election year</a>; it in turn accuses the opposition of not wanting to give up illicit paid access to political information from spooks. </p>
<p>Of course, weak institutions and impunity for the powerful are not the fruits of some latter-day Kirchnerista invention; they are long-established facts of Argentine political life. Still, the current government has done a lot to deepen distrust of the state among its people.</p>
<p>To be sure, the sensation around the death of Nisman made it clear just how badly Argentina’s intelligence system needed reform, and created the context to finally get the job done. But for the sake of democracy, this must not be allowed to descend into a party-political brawl – and certainly not at such a sensitive time, as a two-term-limited president nears the end of her tenure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pia Riggirozzi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has announced plans to dissolve her country’s intelligence services. President Fernandez de Kirchner’s move comes after the controversial death of…Pia Riggirozzi, Associate Professor in Global Politics, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.