Argentine Election Punctures Peronism's Air of Invincibility
- Whether ruling party or opposition wins, new political reality
- Scioli agrees to a debate, scrambles to win the undecideds
Mauricio Macri, Argentina's presidential candidate.
Photographer: Patricio Pidal/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
When President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner voted in the race for her successor on Sunday, clearly expecting her party to triumph, she turned to the cameras and said, “I am leaving you a normal country.”
She was right -- but not in the way she intended. Fernandez’s chosen successor, Daniel Scioli, did not sail through. Instead, the opposition candidate, Mauricio Macri, surged to force a second round run-off. And therein may lie the unintended normality, said Juan Cruz Diaz, managing director of political and regulatory advisory firm Cefeidas Group.