Argentina: Peronism returns

Abstract

In October 2019, Argentina's incumbent president Mauricio Macri was defeated by Alberto Fernández, the candidate of a Peronist coalition. Macri's 2015 victory was hailed at the time as the onset of a right-wing regional wave, but his 2019 defeat shows that the period to follow was in fact one of higher electoral competition and presidential turnover. Macri's weak economic performance and the fact that he confronted a single Peronist ticket, in contrast to the divided field he encountered in 2015, contributed to his defeat. The new administration inherited a dire economic situation to be managed by a coalition with different fiscal priorities and no institutional mechanisms for adjudication.