Argentina is facing elections and it looks like they have a powerful message for the pro-business Mauricio Macri government: it hasn’t worked.<\/p>\n
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In 2015, Argentines chose a radically different direction for their country by electing the pro-business Mauricio Macri as president, rejecting more than a decade of left-wing Peronist populism in favor of an experiment with economic reforms to open the economy.<\/p>\n
This Sunday they headed back to the polls for the first round of the next presidential election, and it looks like they’ll render a stark verdict for the Macri government: it hasn’t worked, according to G ZERO Medi<\/a>a. The “dream” that\u00a0Macri promised<\/a>\u00a0has become a nightmare, because his economic reforms inflicted enough pain to provoke popular backlash, but without reassuring investors that the government was committed to long-term change. The Peronist party, led by Alberto Fernandez with former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as his running mate, is the clear favorite to win, perhaps without a second-round runoff. We’re watching to see how Argentines understand their past and how they want to move toward the future.<\/p>\n The October 27 election is coming down to two presidential tickets, and Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez is polling ahead of President Mauricio Macri. To win, a\u00a0candidate needs to get either\u00a045% of the vote or 40%<\/a>\u00a0with 10 points over the runner-up to win outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates meet in a runoff on\u00a0November 24<\/a>. Presidents may run for consecutive reelection once, then must sit out one four-year term before qualifying to run again.<\/p>\n Four\u00a0other presidential tickets remain in the race and likely only matter to the extent that either Macri or Fern\u00e1ndez could pick up their votes in the case of a runoff. And while\u00a0Argentines\u2019 top concern\u00a0is the economy, particularly inflation, prices, salaries, and unemployment, they are also fretting about corruption and public spending, and those topics can have a final say ahead of the Sunday elections.<\/p>\n