Argentine President Cristina Fernandez suffered a stinging blow in Sunday’s mid-term, losing her majority in the lower house as voters rejected her combative politics and handling of an economic slowdown.
In a humiliating defeat for Argentina’s first couple, her powerful husband and predecessor, former president Nestor Kirchner, was upset in a high-profile congressional race.
The result heightened political uncertainties in Latin America’s No. 3 economy, potentially setting off a power struggle in the ruling Peronist party.
Fernandez could replace several Cabinet ministers in the wake of the defeat, a government source told reporters, asking not to be named.
A slate of candidates headed by billionaire businessman Francisco de Narvaez took just 2 percentage points more votes than the slate headed by Kirchner, in a closely watched race in the country’s most populous province, Buenos Aires.
“This is a stunning result,” said Federico Thomsen, an Argentine political and economic analyst. “Kirchner put everything he had in this election, he put himself in the battlefront and it still wasn’t enough.”
The mid-term election was widely seen as a referendum on the Kirchners and the former president had hoped to shore flagging support for his wife by winning the province, a crucial electoral battleground and Peronist stronghold.
Kirchner conceded to De Narvaez, a center-right congressman. They are both from different wings of the Peronist party.
“At the end of the night triumph awaits us,” De Narvaez told supporters earlier at his election night headquarters.
Fernandez’s approval ratings are mired at 30 percent as she struggles with high inflation, complaints about growing crime and a long-running battle with farmers over her export taxes.
In the lower house, opposition parties took more than a dozen seats, rolling back Fernandez’s previous majority when her allies had more than half of the chamber.
The president was also very close to losing her majority in the Senate, preliminary official results showed.
Kirchner may have to shelve plans he is widely believed to have to run again for president in 2011 since he cannot use a victory in Buenos Aires province as a springboard.
De Narvaez, who owns a TV station and other businesses, spent millions of dollars of his own money to fund his campaign, vowing to put the Kirchners’ power in check and reduce crime.
Some voters, like Violeta Canosa, a 48-year-old housewife, said they threw their support behind de Narvaez to express discontent with the Kirchners.
“They always seem angry and are authoritarian,” she said. “For them, you are either with them or against them.”
Losses by allies in other leading provinces also reflected the Kirchners’ diminished popularity, including rural provinces like Cordoba and Santa Fe where they are unpopular because of a lengthy standoff with farmers.
In another setback, candidates backed by the government finished second in the Kirchners’ home province of Santa Cruz.
Under Argentina’s proportional voting system, voters cast ballots for party slates, so even though he came in second, Kirchner won a seat in Congress.
Many investors put projects on hold and the peso currency weakened in the run up to the election, due to uncertainty over where government policy would head after the vote, since the new Congress will not be seated until December.
Kirchner left office in 2007 as a popular leader, credited by many Argentines for steering the country’s remarkable recovery. But since then, he and his wife’s popularity has plummeted.
Fernandez moved up the mid-term election by four months -- they were scheduled for October -- in a bid to get them out of the way before the economic crisis worsened.
Although official figures show the economy is still growing slowly, the data is widely questioned. Most private estimates forecast an economic contraction this year, with unemployment rising as car, steel and construction output slump.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not