The new Argentine president also wants to promote employment for young people and is trying to distance himself from the Fernández government
The Peronist Sergio Massa (Unión por la Pátria), 51 years old, will compete for the presidency of Argentina this Sunday (11/19/2023) with the libertarian Javier Milei (La Libertad Avanza).
With the idea of stabilizing the Argentine economy in one year, the Minister of Economy is a figure in traditional Argentine politics. He was born on April 28, 1972 in the city of San Martín, Buenos Aires Province, to a housewife and a construction contractor who came from Italy during World War II. Today he is married to Malena Galmarini, with whom he has two children: Tomás and Milagros.
Massa graduated in law from the University of Belgrano and began his career in politics in the 1990s with Ucede (União do Centro Demático), a centerright liberal political party that emerged during the presidency of Carlos Menem (19891999 ) joined Peronism, a branch of Argentine politics that emerged in the 1940s following former President Juan Domingo Perón (19461955 and 19731974).
In 1999, the lawyer was elected provincial deputy of Buenos Aires.
In 2002, Massa was appointed head of Anses (National Social Security Agency) by Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde. In 2005, during the government of former President Néstor Kirchner, he was elected as a national deputy for the first time, but resigned from the post to continue leading Anses, where he remained until 2007.
During this period, Massa joined Kirchnerism a leftwing political ideology related to former President Néstor Kirchner (20032007) and Cristina Kirchner, the former President (20072015) and current Vice President.
A supporter of the political movement, the Argentine was elected mayor of the city of Tigre, in the province of Buenos Aires, in 2007, but resigned from this position a year later to take over the leadership of the cabinet of then President Cristina Kirchner. He held this position for a year and then returned to Tigre City Hall, where he was reelected in 2011.
From this point on, Massa began to distance himself from Kirchnerism. The final break with Cristina came in 2013, when the Argentine founded the Frente Renovador party and was elected as a deputy. In 2015, the lawyer ran for the Argentine presidency and even declared that his eventual victory would end the “Kirchnerist era.” However, Massa came 3rd in the election.
In the 2019 presidential election, Argentines once again moved closer to Kirchnerism and Peronism. He abandoned the candidacy for Casa Rosada and joined the Frente de Todos coalition, led by current Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner. This year, Massa was elected deputy and presided over the chamber until 2022, while Fernández and Kirchner were elected to the Casa Rosada.
On August 3, 2022, Sergio Massa resigned his position as deputy and became the 3rd Minister of Economy under the Fernández government. He took over the leadership of the body after the president decided to unite the ministries of economy, productive development and agriculture, livestock and fisheries to centralize measures to resolve the country’s economic crisis.
In the 2023 presidential election, the lawyer had the support of Fernández and Kirchner in the Argentine primaries and became the Peronist candidate in the dispute. But given the deterioration of Argentina’s economy over the past four years and the government’s decline in popularity, Massa sought to break away from Fernández’s leadership during the election campaign.
“My government will be different than this,” said the Argentine at the final event of his election campaign. After the first round, Massa downplayed the fact that Fernández and Cristina had not been involved in his campaign as expected. The new president said that the electoral process was his business, just as the leadership was his.
“The government will also be mine. “Anyone who knows me knows that I have no bosses, my only boss will be the Argentine people, those who voted for me and those who did not vote,” he explained.
The new president’s main proposals for his term in office are:
- Business Renegotiate debt, mainly with the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Create a price and salary negotiation table to curb inflation. Make agreements on priority economic areas such as manufacturing, technology and job creation. Implement a macroeconomic program aimed at generating a foreign exchange surplus;
- Security Creation of a police unit specialized in combating drug trafficking. Implementation of camera surveillance systems to prevent crime;
- Training Increase investment in education. Introducing compulsory programming and robotics subjects for secondary school students. Strengthening and restoring the institutional foundations for the development and coordination of national education policies;
- work pass a law that makes it easier to get your first job. Promote vocational training. Offer tax incentives to companies that create job opportunities for young people who are not yet in the labor market. Launch a training and employment program for women victims of genderbased violence. Create collaborative public works projects to create jobs.
Massa’s government program is detailed on the party’s official website.
BRAZIL & ARGENTINA
In August, after the primaries, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad received Sergio Massa in Brasília. The leaders discussed bilateral relations and trade financing mechanisms between the two countries.
After the first round of elections, in which Sergio Massa emerged victorious with 36.58% of the valid votes against 30.04%, Brazilian congressmen and ministers allied with Lula celebrated the Peronist victory.
Ministers Paulo Pimenta (Secom) and Luciana Santos (Science and Technology) congratulated Massa after the result, as did MPs José Guimarães (PTCE), head of government in the chamber, and Gleisi Hoffmann (PTPR), president of the PT , Maria do Rosário (PTRS) and Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (no partyAP), head of government in Congress.
According to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, President Lula also called Massa after the first round of voting, but there was no public congratulatory demonstration.
Two weeks before the second round, on November 5, the Workers’ Party published a note supporting the election of Sergio Massa. In the text signed by Hoffmann, the party compared the new president’s rival, Javier Milei, with former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and emphasized the defense of regional integration.
FRAGILIZED ECONOMY
According to 2022 data from the World Bank, Argentina is the second largest economy in South America and the 22nd in the world, with a GDP (gross domestic product) of $632.77 billion.
The country is also the Brazilians’ third largest trading partner. Brazil exported $15.34 billion last year and imported $13.10 billion from the neighboring country, with a balance of $2.24 billion.
However, the biggest challenge for Massa will be the country’s economy. The country is experiencing its highest inflation since 1991, at a rate of 142.7% in October.
The interest rate, Leliq, was raised to 133% by the BCRA (Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina) to increase the incentive to save in pesos and control the rise in prices.
The dollar reserves of the BCRA (Central Bank of the Argentine Republic) are also a problem. As of November 2, Argentina’s BC had $21.2 billion, its lowest level since 2006. Alberto Fernández started 2023 with reserves of $44.6 billion. The BCRA reached its maximum U.S. foreign reserves in 2019 with $77.4 billion in cash. At that time the country was ruled by Mauricio Macri.
