Alberto Fernández

On 18 May 2019, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that Fernández would be a candidate for president, and that she would run for vice president alongside him, hosting his first campaign rally with Santa Cruz Governor Alicia Kirchner, sister-in-law of the former Kirchner.[15][16]

About a month later, seeking to broaden his appeal to moderates, Fernández struck a deal with Sergio Massa to form an alliance called Frente de Todos, wherein Massa would be offered a role within a potential Fernández administration, or be given a key role within the Chamber of Deputies in exchange for dropping out of the presidential race and offering his support.[17] Fernández also earned the endorsement of the General Confederation of Labor, receiving their support in exchange for promising that he will boost the economy, and that there will be no labor reform.[18]

On 11 August 2019, Fernández won first place in the 2019 primary elections, earning 47.7% of the vote, compared to incumbent President Mauricio Macri's 31.8%.[19] Fernández thereafter held a press conference where he said he called Macri to say that he would help Macri complete his term and "bring calm to society and markets," and that his economic proposals do not run the risk of defaulting on the national debt.[20]

President-elect Fernández meets with outgoing President Macri following national elections that took place the previous day.

In the 27 October general election, Fernández won the presidency by attaining 48.1% of the vote to Macri's 40.4%, exceeding the threshold required to win without the need for a ballotage. [21] In Argentina, a presidential candidate can win outright by either garnering at least 45 percent of the vote, or winning 40 percent of the vote while being 10 points ahead of his or her nearest challenger. He owed his victory mainly to carrying Buenos Aires Province by over 1.6 million votes, accounting for almost all of his nationwide margin of 2.1 million votes. By comparison, Daniel Scioli only carried the country's largest province by 219,000 votes four years earlier.

President Alberto Fernández (left) with his Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (right)

Fernández was sworn in on 10 December 2019.

On 14 December, the government established by decree the emergency in occupational matters and double compensation for dismissal without just cause for six months.[22]

His first legislative initiative, the Social Solidarity and Productive Recovery Bill, was passed by Congress on 23 December.[23] The bill includes tax hikes on foreign currency purchases, agricultural exports, wealth, and car sales - as well as tax incentives for production. Amid the worst recession in nearly two decades, it provides a 180-day freeze on utility rates, bonuses for the nation's retirees and Universal Allocation per Child beneficiaries, and food cards to two million of Argentina's poorest families. It also gave the president additional powers to renegotiate debt terms – with Argentina seeking to restructure its US$100 billion debt with private bondholders and US$45 billion borrowed by Macri from the International Monetary Fund.[23]

Organizations of the agricultural sector, including Sociedad Rural Argentina, CONINAGRO, Argentine Agrarian Federation and Argentine Rural Confederations, rejected the increase in taxes on agricultural exports. Despite these conflicts, Fernández announced the three-point increase in withholding tax on soybeans on the day of the opening of the regular sessions, on 1 March and generated major problems in the relationship between the government and the agricultural sector.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]

Argentina defaulted again on May 22, 2020 by failing to pay $500 million on its due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.[32]

The International Monetary Fund reported that the COVID-19 crisis would plunge Argentina's GDP by 9.9 percent, after the country's economy contracted by 5.4 percent in first quarter of 2020, with unemployment rising over 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year, before the lockdown started.[33][34][35]

On August 4, Fernández reached an accord with the biggest creditors on terms for a restructuring of $65bn in foreign bonds, after a breakthrough in talks that had at times looked close to collapse since the country's ninth debt default in May.[36]

On September 22, as part of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, official reports showed a 19% year-on-year drop in the GDP for the second quarter of 2020, the biggest drop in the country's history.[37][38] Investment went down 38% from the previous year.[37][38]

On 31 December, Fernández announced that he will send a bill in 2020 to discuss the legalization of abortion, ratified his support for its approval, and expressed his wish for "sensible debate”.[39] However, in June 2020 he stated that he was "attending to more urgent matters" (referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt restructuring), and that "he'll send the bill at some point".[40] In November 2020 Fernández's legal secretary, Vilma Ibarra, confirmed that the government would be sending a new bill for the legalization of abortion to the National Congress that month.[41] The Executive sent the bill, alongside another bill oriented towards women's healthcare (the "1000 Days Plan"), on 17 November 2020.[42] The bill was passed by the Senate, legalizing abortion in Argentina, on 30 December 2020.[43]

On 1 March, he also announced a restructuring of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), including the publications of its accounts - which had been made secret by Macri in a 2016 decree.[44][45] The AFI had been criticized for targeting public figures for political purposes.[44]

On August 17, protests took place in many cities across Argentina against measures taken by Fernández, primarily the Justice Reform Bill his government had sent to the Congress, but also, among other causes: for the "defense of institutions" and "separation of powers", against the government's quarantine measures, the perceived lack of liberty and the increase in crime, and a raise on state pensions.[46][47]

On 4 September 2020, Fernández signed a Necessity and Urgency Decree (Decreto 721/2020) establishing a 1% employment quota for trans and travesti people in the national public sector. The measure had been previously debated in the Chamber of Deputies as various prospective bills.[48] The decree mandates that at any given point, at least 1% of all public sector workers in the national government must be transgender, as understood in the 2012 Gender Identity Law.[49]

On 12 November 2020 Fernández signed a decree legalizing the self-cultivation and regulating the sales and subsidized access of medical cannabis, expanding upon a 2017 bill that legalized the use and research of the plant and its derivatives.[50] In June 2019, during his presidential campaign, he had signalled his intention to legalize marihuana for recreational purposes but not other types of drugs.[51]

Meeting with Pope Francis on 31 January 2020.

During his administration, Argentina's relationship with Brazil has become somewhat strained.[52] Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro refused to attend Fernández's inauguration, accusing him of wanting to create a "great Bolivarian homeland" on the border and of preparing to provoke a flight of capital and companies into Brazil.[53] Fernández and Bolsonaro had their first conversation through a video conference on 30 November 2020, during which both presidents cooled down the animosity and agreed on the importance of cooperation and the role of Mercosur.[54]

Donald Trump's top adviser for the Western Hemisphere, Mauricio Claver-Carone, crossed Fernández in 2019 saying: "We want to know if Alberto Fernández will be a defender of democracy or an apologist for dictatorships and leaders in the region, whether it be Maduro, Correa or Morales."[55] Under Fernández, Argentina has remained in the Lima Group formed by North and South American nations to address the crisis in Venezuela, although the Argentine government has not subscribed to all of the Group's statements and resolutions.[56] Argentina voted in favor of the United Nations resolution to back the continuity of the UN Human Rights Office report on human rights violations in Venezuela.[57]

Alberto Fernández questioned the conclusions the Organization of American States that the reelection of Evo Morales was unconstitutional for electoral fraud. Fernández's government recognized Morales as the legitimate president of Bolivia, and granted him asylum in Argentina in December 2019.[58][59] On 9 November 2020, upon Luis Arce's victory in the 2020 Bolivian elections, Fernández personally accompanied Morales to the Argentine border with Bolivia, wherein the two leaders held a public act celebrating Morales's return to his home country.[60]

The announcement of the lockdown by Fernández was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact.[61]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernandez's government announced a country-wide lockdown, in effect from 20 March until 31 March, later extended until 12 April.[62][63] The lockdown was further renewed on April 27, May 11, May 25, June 8, July 1, July 18, August 3, August 17, August 31 and September 21, and included several measures including travel, transport and citizen movement restrictions, stay-at-home orders, store closures and reduced operating hours.[64]

Responses to the outbreak have included restrictions on commerce and movement, closure of borders, and the closure of schools and educational institutions.[65] The announcement of the lockdown was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact in the already delicate state of Argentina's economy, with analysts predicting at least 3% GDP decrease in 2020.[66][67] Fernandez later announced a 700 billion pesos (US$11.1 billion) stimulus package, worth 2% of the country's GDP.[68][69][66] After announced a mandatory quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries,[70][71] the government closed its borders, ports, and suspended flights.[65][72]

On 23 March, Fernández asked the Chinese president Xi Jinping for 1,500 ventilators as Argentina had only 8,890 available.[73][74]

Included in the package was the announcement of a one-time emergency payment of 10,000 pesos (US$152, as of March 20) to lower-income individuals whose income was affected by the lockdown, including retirees.[75] Because banks were excluded in the list of businesses that were considered essential in Fernandez's lockdown decree, they remained closed until the Central Bank announced banks would open during a weekend starting on 3 April.[76]

Due to Argentina's notoriously low level of banking penetration, many Argentines, particularly retirees, do not possess bank accounts and are used to withdraw funds and pensions in cash.[77] The decision to open banks for only three days on a reduced-hours basis sparked widespread outrage as hundreds of thousands of retirees (coronavirus' highest risk group) flocked to bank branches in order to withdraw their monthly pension and emergency payment.[78][79][80][81]

Due to the national lockdown, the economical activity suffered a collapse of nearly 10% in March 2020 according to a consultant firm. The highest drop was of the construction sector (32%) versus March 2019. Every economical sector suffered a collapse, with finance, commerce, manufacturing industry and mining being the most affected. The agriculture sector was the least affected, but overall the economic activity for the first trimester of 2020 accumulates a 5% contraction. It is expected that the extension of the lockdown beyond April would increase the collapse of the Argentinian economy.[82] On March, the primary fiscal deficit jumped to US$1,394 million, an 857% increase year-to-year. This was due to the public spending to combat the pandemic and the drop in tax collection due to low activity in a context of social isolation.[83]

Despite the government's hard lockdown policy, Fernández has been criticized[84] for not following the appropriate protocols himself. This included traveling throughout the country, taking pictures with large groups of supporters without properly wearing a mask nor respecting social distancing,[85] and holding social gatherings with union leaders.[86]

Fernández receiving the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 on 21 January 2021.

On September 3, despite most local governments still enforcing strict lockdown measures, Fernández stated that "there is no lockdown",[87] and that such thoughts had "been instilled by the opposition", as part of a political agenda.[88] Fernández eased some lockdown measures in the Greater Buenos Aires on November 6, 2020, shifting to a "social distancing" phase.[89][90]

On 21 January 2021, Fernández became the first Latin American leader to be inoculated against the disease via the recently approved Gam-COVID-Vac (better known as Sputnik V).[91][92]