Argentinian Vice-President Cristina Kirchner (center-left) rallied the Peronist camp on Thursday, during a rally that looked like a campaign launch five months before the general elections, by drawing a major theme: the revision of the Monetary Fund program international (IMF).
“If we fail to set aside the program that the IMF imposes on all its debtors, to develop our own program of growth, industrialization and technological innovation, it will be impossible to pay (the debt to the IMF), no matter what,” Kirchner said.
The $44 billion IMF loan to Argentina in 2018 – under the previous liberal government of Mauricio Macri – which Argentina is struggling to repay “was a political loan, and the solution must be be political,” Ms Kirchner said.
Let the reimbursement be linked to a levy on exports, she suggested, “but let them (the IMF) stop trying to direct policy and stifle the industrialization of the country”.
Several thousand people, braving the rain, filled Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires in one of the largest political rallies since the beginning of the year. It marked both the anniversary of the “May Revolution” of 1810, the first date of the emancipation of Argentina, and the accession 20 years ago to the presidency of Nestor Kirchner (who died in 2010), which Cristina, his wife, succeeded from 2007 to 2015.
Ms. Kirchner, 70, reaffirmed in early May that she will not be a presidential candidate in October, despite calls from her supporters, for fear of being “invalidated” by a politicized justice system. She was sentenced at the end of 2022 for fraud and corruption – which she denies – during her mandates.
Not a candidate, she nevertheless remains the ultra-dominant figure in the left-wing political space, and leader of the Peronist current (heir to Juan Domingo Peron, president from 1946 to 1955 then in 1973-74). And no president-vice-president ticket should be made without his endorsement.
But on Thursday she did not mention any potential candidate who in her view could embody the Peronist camp, or the Frente de Todos government coalition. Head of State Alberto Fernandez, particularly unpopular against a background of inflation at more than 100% over the year, has also ruled out running again.
However, relatives of Ms. Kirchner and potential candidates appeared alongside her on the scene, such as the Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, the Minister of the Interior Eduardo de Pedro, or the governor of the province of Buenos Aires Axel Kicillof.
05/26/2023 07:15:21 – Buenos Aires (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
