Presidential debate program announced in Argentina

[Judi Lynn]

Buenos Aires, Aug 31 (Prensa Latina) The electoral process in Argentina continues as scheduled with six running formulas for the presidency and vice presidency in the October elections, who were called by authorities to organize the first TV debate.

According to the National Electoral Chamber, the fronts that will participate in the general elections on October 27 were called to take part in the first hearing on September 5, to define the way in which the first of the two debates will be held, with participation of all running political forces.

The request was made for all presidential candidates to meet at the Chamber to express personally or through their representatives their will to participate in the compulsory presidential debates.

So far, the candidates have publicly expressed their intention to participate, although the law establishes that those absent will be sanctioned by not receiving spaces for audiovisual publicity, the website of El Parlamentario reported.

More:
https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=46435&SEO=presidential-debate-program-announced-in-argentina

[sandensea]

1. I'm looking forward to those debates - assuming Macri's still in office by then.

With the country's short-term debt now in open default (walloping local investors); with mounting layoffs, inflation, and shortages; reserves plummeting by over $1 billion daily; and depositors withdrawing nearly $500 million a day from banks, many Argentines no longer believe that Macri will still be in office for the mid-October debates - or for the October 27 second round.

Much less for his scheduled handover of the presidency itself on December 10.

Your earlier update by Andrea Lobo ( https://www.democraticunderground.com/110868536#post1) really captured the current sentiment there, Judi. Thank you for finding that.

Macri's likely successor, Alberto Fernández, would very much prefer that he finish his term (such as it's been).

But he's widely rumored to be increasingly leaning toward resigning before the October 27 election - in order to somehow deprive Fernández of "legitimacy" by denying him the chance to beat his pants off (by 20-25%, according to most polls) in the second round.

Indeed, Macri already tried to cloud Fernández's first round victory winning by triggering a currency crisis on August 12 - and then trying to blame him for the incident.

Instead, polls show 66% of voters blaming Macri and just 5% blaming Fernández.

As you can imagine protests against Macri are mounting (see below). Personally, I'd rather see Macri stick around at least until the October 27 elections - but it increasingly looks as though he'll be in either Sardinia or Miami by then.

Thank you for diligently keeping up with Argentina's Macrisis, Judi. Here's hoping for a better 2020.

[Judi Lynn]

2. If only Macri could be forced to finish his first term!

It's so good to know that Macri's attempt to stick the responsibility for his own problem on Alberto Fernández failed almost totally.

Losing a billion from national reserves, and half as much from banks by private investors is astonishing. It almost doesn't seem possible.

The video shots of the demonstration taken from above are wonderful. I have never seen a large demonstration covered so accurately. Using helicopters for a greater perspective is totally unique. The views are fascinating. So many people. It was beautiful
seeing how many crossings meeting the main thoroughfare brought additional marchers. (Almost as many people as the crowd for Trump's inaugural!)

Two months during which he might try to "get outta Dodge." He really should stay and enjoy being among his peeps until the election. Doesn't he want to enjoy another celebration?





Some fancy butt-work.

(Gee, he really doesn't do a "moonwalk" well, at all, does he?)

Thanks for sharing the demonstration video views. I got a chance to see there are a lot of people representing the F.O.L., an organization I hadn't heard of, yet. At first, I saw the giant FOL on banners and thought it stood for "FOLHA" and had to look again. I was hoping it did mean a shortcut for saying "folha Macri".

We'll be watching with you as November approaches, really hoping for the best.

[sandensea]

3. I remember the sadness that day, knowing that Macri would create another dictatorship-style crisis

Deregulate finance, create a quick bubble, wire the proceeds overseas, take on huge debts to make sure the dollars are available to do so - and when midnight strikes, let it all collapse and fall apart for everyone else. Like a pumpkin.

It's a smaller version of Bush's sub-prime/derivatives bubble and crash - except, and thank goodness, the U.S. has a Fed that can paper over almost any loss ($20+ trillion, in fact).

Argentina, like most countries, can't - because it doesn't put out a hard currency (just the flimsy old peso).

Now, you asked about the FOL. I believe that's the 'Front of Organizations in Struggle' - a federation of left-wing social activist groups (http://folweb.com.ar/).

They're brave to organize the way they do - though if I could suggest anything to them, it would be to be patient. They can't expect the next president to turn the economy around overnight - and they can't expect him (or any president) to end poverty.

For any Latin American country, that's still decades away at least.

What's important, is to move in the right direction again.